


rainbow

by mrsfallonridley



Category: Dynasty (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Married!Falliam, Miscarriage, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:33:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 71,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26178805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsfallonridley/pseuds/mrsfallonridley
Summary: Fallon and Liam 's journey to parenthood. This is a spin-off of"lights will guide you home".
Relationships: Fallon Carrington & Liam Ridley, Fallon Carrington/Liam Ridley
Comments: 79
Kudos: 119





	1. four letter word

**Author's Note:**

> First, if you haven't read it yet, I highly suggest you read ["lights will guide you home"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24755617) before reading this one!! It will hopefully make more sense. 
> 
> Naz requested a part 2 for "lights will guide you home" and I thought it was an excellent idea! Then, the people of [twitter voted for a baby making marathon](https://twitter.com/MrsFallonRidley/status/1286999960811118592) so, here it is. It's not as smutty as I had initially anticipated it to be because I figured out I have a really hard time writing smut :/ Instead, I threw in some Van Kirk action to make up for it (it will still have explicit scenes, tho. So beware, kids!)
> 
> This is planned to be a multi-chaptered story, so I will come back with more soon! (*hopefully*)  
> For the more distracted ones, _italic_ is the past timeline (the time of present "lights will guide you home") and the normal font is set 2 years after that. The timelines are also not in order so I apologize if it is confusing to understand. (Let me know if it is confusing!!)
> 
> Last but not least... Inspired by [Kacey Musgraves's song "Rainbow"](https://youtu.be/6OFv566mj7s):
> 
> “ 'Cause the sky has finally opened, the rain and wind stopped blowin'  
> But you're stuck out in the same old storm again  
> Let go of your umbrella, 'cause darlin', I'm just tryin' to tell ya  
> That there's always been a rainbow hangin' over your head”

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙱𝙴𝙳𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼 - 𝙽𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃. 𝚃𝚄𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟷𝟽𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

Fallon had just finished scribbling another sentence on the manuscript when she heard her husband laughing at something he had just read. They had adopted a new bedtime routine ever since Liam had started writing his new book that, in spite of being really monotonous and simple, seemed to be mutually beneficial.

Liam always made sure to, no matter what, be done with work by 6 o’clock, finishing his tasks for the day by printing all the pages he had written that day. Then later each night, after dinner and their very complex night regimes, while Liam read other authors for fun, Fallon read his manuscript, writing down all her notes for him to go through the next day.

Liam didn’t really _need_ her notes, after all that’s what his editor was for, but Fallon wanted to read it, her curiosity getting the best of her, and he looked forward to discovering every morning what had been on her mind the night before, there by his side. That night in particular, when Liam took one of his reading breaks to spy on what Fallon was writing, it seemed like she had a lot to say as the sides of the manuscript were completely full of words written in pencil.

“Oh-uh. Guess I will have lots to go through tomorrow…” Liam grinned at the pages of his book, avoiding looking at her since he knew she didn’t like to feel observed while she was writing.

“Well. I think you missed a few good opportunities here and I just want to let you know why and how to fix it.” Fallon said as she continued writing down all her thoughts about the additional scenes Liam had drafted that day.

“Are you liking it, at least?” he asks, both of them continuing without taking their eyes off their own activities.

“I’m loving it. It’s really good, Liam.” She said, turning her body to look directly at him. They have been married for a little over two years and little moments like these allowed them to have their own peaceful individual time to unwind while still being together as a couple. “I think you really outdid yourself with this one, and I’m not just saying that because I’m your wife. I think it’s really well carved out and beautiful… and damn… is it getting good!”

“Thank you, babe.” Liam leaned forward for a kiss, that Fallon gladly accepted.

“Are you sure this is not based on us?” The more Fallon read the manuscript, the more familiar it felt to her. Fallon didn’t think it was a stretch to think so either. After all, he had written her a love letter in the form of “The Biggest Payday” and his most recent book had featured their bedroom alter egos, P.I. Leland and criminal-on-the-run, Veronica. Surely, it wasn’t too far-fetched for her to think that this new heroine of his would somehow be related to her too. “I mean… Is this girl not based on me at all?”

“I told you… She is not based on you.” Liam had the biggest grin on his face. He had promised to tell her where he had gotten his inspiration from once the book was finished, with the excuse that he didn’t want it to influence the way she saw the characters, but Fallon still tried to get the answer out of him every single night. “Do you like her?”

“She is definitely interesting… And complex… And I love her powerful attitude and how she has this soft side that not many people know about... You know, her most vulnerable side.” Fallon winked, still convinced that it had to be somehow related to her. “Just like I do…”

“I’m glad you think so. Now. Keep going!” Liam said, nodding to the manuscript before he resumed reading his book and the silence took over their bedroom once again for a while, until Fallon broke it to ask something that had been on her mind all day.

“Do you know what day is tomorrow?” Fallon bit her bottom lip, waiting for an answer, too nervous she was the only one that still cared about it.

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙱𝙴𝙳𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼 - 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝚃𝚄𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟷𝟿𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_Liam kissed Fallon’s forehead as she winced while sleeping in his arms, adjusting the bedding over their bodies to make sure she wasn’t cold, and hoping those weren’t the first signs of another nightmare. It had been a long night and if Liam counted, he wouldn’t get to a total of 2 hours of sleep. However, now, as the sun was starting to rise and he watched Fallon finally sleeping peacefully against his body, Liam felt the tiredness of a restless night get to him and decided to close his eyes for a while as well. He was just drifting off to sleep when Fallon decided to get up about half an hour later, stirring him up._

_“Where are you going?” a very sleepy Liam asked as he felt a fresh breeze hit the portion of his warm torso Fallon was lying on._

_“Bathroom.”_

_“Do you want me to go with you?” Liam asked, rubbing his eyes and propping himself up on one of his elbows, remembering the hours spent in the bathroom by her side the night before and how there wasn’t much he could do other than just be there._

_“No, it’s okay. I will just get clean and changed… you know…” before he knew it, Fallon was out of sight and the water was running, leaving him impatiently waiting for her return and without a chance of going back to sleep until that happened._

_When the water stopped running and Fallon walked out of the bathroom, Liam expected to feel his freshly clean wife fall back into his arms again, but instead of going back to bed, Fallon walked straight into their big walk-in closet in nothing but her monogrammed bath robe._

_“Fal?” he called when he heard her enter the adjacent room._

_“Yes?” She replied from afar._

_“Come to bed.”_

_“I’m just picking some clothes.”_

_“What for?” Liam was so confused. He shook his head and recalled the previous night’s events, wondering if it had all just been a nightmare and everything was, in fact, okay. However, when his mind flashbacked to it, it seemed all too real to not have happened. He could see it and hear her too clearly to be just a fragment of his imagination. “Don’t make me come get you!” Liam warned, already getting ready to get out of bed._

_“I’m going back to work.” Fallon peeked in the room and informed him casually._

_“No, you are not.” Liam sat up in bed, staring at her in just her underwear now, peeking into the bedroom through the door frame. “You didn’t sleep all night. You’re tired, honey. And…” Liam thought very carefully before he continued not wanting to trigger anything. “We just lost our baby, Fallon...”_

_“Exactly.” She said taking in a big golf of air and breathing it out slowly right after, mostly to keep herself from crying. “I need to do something else other than think about that.”_

_“Come here, please.” She didn’t seem convinced. “Please.” There was no way Fallon could say no to his face when he looked at her like that; his eyes seemingly bigger than normal and fixated on her. Fallon walked towards the edge of the bed where Liam finally managed to get a hold of her hand. “C’mon…” he gently pulled her down and back into the mattress. “We don’t have to stay here all day. In fact, I agree… I think we should go out. Take our minds off this, but… I want you and me to take a nap before going.” He wrapped his arms around her again, discreetly sniffing her freshly clean body to take in the fruity scent of her body wash. “I want you to rest and try to find some peace, even if it just for a while.”_

_“I don’t think I can sleep.” Fallon whispered, adjusting herself in bed to find the position she was comfortably sleeping against him in before she got up._

_“We will try. Just close your eyes…” Liam ran his fingers gently through her freshly washed and dried long locks, getting them away from her blushed face so he could make sure she was in fact with her eyes closed. “You twisted and turned all night in pain. Are you feeling any better?”_

_“Yeah, it’s just very mild cramps now. It’s manageable.”_

_“I’m glad to hear it’s getting better.” Liam kissed the top of her head, not wanting to even imagine seeing her in that kind of pain ever again. “It will only get better.”_

_“Liam.” Her voice, weak, avoiding starting to cry again. “I know I told you this last night, but… I really can’t do this again. I don’t want to get pregnant again.” Fallon said, opening her eyes and looking up at him to try to read him, to know exactly how he felt about it. However, it was Liam who could see right through her. She was hurting, more than just physically. All he could see in her was pure hurt and disappointment._

_“Like I told you last night, if you don’t want to, you absolutely don’t have to.” Liam looked straight in her eyes, a comforting look that Fallon desperately needed in that moment. A look that he meant. “And if you change your mind… I will also support that.” Fallon thought that once the severe pain subdued everything would go back to normal, like it was before, but instead, she just felt empty. She felt like a part of her, one she didn’t even know she had, was missing and she didn’t know where to find it. Fallon thought Liam’s words would help with that, but they didn’t. “Whatever you decide is the right decision, Fallon, and I will be here for you no matter what that is. Children or no children. Right now, or in 10 years.”_

_“It’s just… you finally seemed really excited about our… about it and, I made a big deal about the kids’ thing and now… I just can’t do it, Liam.” Fallon closed her eyes again, feeling a single tear escape through the corner of her eye, and hoping Liam wouldn’t notice it._

_“It’s alright.” He kissed the top of her head once again, his hand travelling slowly from her shoulder until it reached her exposed lower back, where it rested at last. “I’m perfectly fine with being just the two of us as well.”_

_“Liam…” she started, reluctant about what she needed to ask next. “Can you get rid of that?” Fallon asked softly, pointing to the grey plush toy he had given her as a present and that had been living on top of their bedroom bench ever since Liam had found out Fallon was pregnant. “I really don’t want to look at it ever again. I’m sorry.”_

_“Of course.” Liam sighed and Fallon closed her eyes, desperately trying to fall asleep. He knew all it represented and what it didn’t anymore. “Consider it gone.”_

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙱𝙴𝙳𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼 - 𝙽𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃. 𝚃𝚄𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟷𝟽𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

“Of course, I remember, Fal. I don’t think I will ever forget it.” Liam paused once again, closing the book he was reading this time and placing it on top of his nightstand before turning to her, hoping she would do the same. “Listen. I booked us a table at Aria. 8 o’clock. I will be at your office to pick you up around 7:30.” Liam knew she had been really busy taking part in all their families’ companies, but he also knew that for that one day, she would gladly take time off to forget everything else and just be with him.

“You did? Did you also get me a room full of flowers like you did last year?” The first anniversary was harder than they both had anticipated it to be. At that point, it already seemed like a distant memory but in fact, when the day came, it felt like it had all just happened again, taking them both on an emotional journey they weren’t expecting at the time.

“Actually, it was supposed to be a surprise, Mrs. Ridley, but yeah, I did.” Liam confessed, followed by a giggle, and Fallon couldn’t help but feel like the luckiest woman in the world. “So, please, can you pretend to be surprised tomorrow morning?”

“I will. I will look very surprised!” Fallon leaned forward slowly, both her hands cupping his face and guiding his lips deeply into hers. “I love you.” She said, breaking the kiss.

“I love you too.” Liam could see that, with another year gone by since the miscarriage, a lot had healed and that they were now definitely at peace with the whole experience, from the trusting issues brought up by Fallon hiding the pregnancy to the trauma of them losing the baby. It took them a while to learn forgiveness and acceptance but now, it felt like they had reached a place of closure. Finally. “I know it will always be a sort of weird day for us because of what happened, but I thought we could try to make new and better memories for that day. We will start with dinner at one of our favorite restaurants and see where the night takes us…”

“I think that sounds excellent. Thank you.” Fallon leans over to kiss him once again, really wanting to take it to more than just one kiss but deciding against it. “I’m almost done with my notes.”

“Hurry up, I want to sleep…” he smiled as he patted the three pillows on his side of the bed to adjust them to just how he liked them before he laid down.

“Sleep? I am not counting on sleeping when I’m done with this.” The mischievous smirk on her face telling him exactly all he needed to know about what she planned on doing next.

“Either way, hurry up!” He laughed, gently poking the side of her leg. “You have rewritten half of the book for me!”

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙻𝙸𝚅𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼 - 𝙰𝙵𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙽𝙾𝙾𝙽. 𝚆𝙴𝙳𝙽𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟸𝟽𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_“Fal, babe.” Liam called out from the kitchen where he was helping their cook finish dinner when he heard Fallon come down the stairs and into their living room, just recently changed into her night robe. “We need to talk.” He fidgeted with his phone in his hands, not really knowing what to do with himself._

_“Yes?” she says, meeting Liam in the living room and taking the hint of his nod to take the place next to him on the couch, noticing the concerned look on his face, the same one he reserved for all their serious conversations, which immediately made her mentally go through all of her most recent and potentially problematic behaviors._

_“I…” Liam didn’t know exactly how to start, his brain still a bit foggy after his most recent phone call. “My cousin Elliott called.” Fallon felt an immediate relief. Whatever it was, it was manageable and not directly related to their relationship. She could freely breathe again._

_“Do I know him?” Fallon asked timidly, as she hadn’t paid much attention the last time that she had been introduced to the Van Kirks. Some of them, mostly harmless cousins, had attended their wedding a few months back but, to Fallon, the small talk she had made with Liam’s relatives just felt like a blurry background memory, being completely overshadowed by the utter joy she felt every time she remembered their big day._

_“You have met him briefly. Elliott is my Uncle Max’s eldest son, and he works for VKI. He became one of the members of the board when his father died.” Liam explained._

_“Oh! The really handsome one! I think I remember him.” Elliott was a few years older than Liam and someone he had always looked up to. Elliott was also a rarity in their family: he took the business seriously as he had been trained by both his mother and father to do while growing up, but he never let it turn him into a backstabbing, power hungry, money-obsessed person like most of the other Van Kirks were. So, when Elliott called asking for a favor, Liam readily took the time to listen to what he had to say, trusting that whatever it was, it was probably important._

_“Yeah, that one. It seems like… My mom’s little business with Moldova got them into a bit of trouble and Elliott wants to revoke her position as CEO and... They are still debating whether or not they should remove her from the board.” Fallon’s business brain was activated right away, her eyes shining like they hadn’t in weeks at the opportunity to see Laura have what she valued the most being taken away from her._

_“Oh, why am I not surprised?” Fallon tried to contain her excitement, noticing the tone of the conversation was still very much a somber one._

_“He wants me to be the next CEO, Fallon.” Liam said nervously, his voice almost cracking at the acronym._

_“You?” Fallon snorted at the unexpected revelation. “I’m sorry, babe. That came out wrong.” She tried to contain her laughter the best she could. “Does he know you are a writer?” Fallon held Liam’s hand in a soothing motion as she realized he was in fact freaking out over the whole situation. Understandably. Business wasn’t really his thing._

_“Yeah, he does!” Liam was still a bit in shock himself. “He says I’m the right person for the job, and he said the rest of the board will vote for me too. Elliott thinks it’s the…” Liam felt a little apprehensive saying it “…safest option since she is my mother, you know… they hope she will take it better.” Liam knows his mother is crazy, but he also knows she would never intentionally do something to hurt him. However, he wasn’t so sure of what she was capable of doing to the other Van Kirk family members, making it easy for him to understand when Elliott explained his concerns about the situation._

_“Are you saying yes, then?” Fallon sounded more excited than anything else, a stark contrast to how Liam was feeling._

_“I don’t think I have a choice. I’m the majority shareholder by a lot, Fallon…” There was another revelation Fallon was not expecting. They didn’t talk about VKI very often as Liam was never really interested in it, but of course Fallon knew he owned VKI shares; she just wasn’t expecting it to be a significant amount. “With our marriage, and according to my father’s will, I got his shares that until then were in my mother’s power and apparently I have Lucy’s too since she really doesn’t want them.” Liam continued to explain while Fallon’s brain worked the rough numbers to figure out exactly what that meant for Liam._

_“Your father’s shares? I thought VKI was just your mom’s…”_

_“It’s a long story…” Liam sighed, recalling the endless fights he had watched his parents have over the years because of the company. “My mom is kind of a cutthroat businesswoman and there was a point in their marriage that she bought my father’s family company into VKI.” Fallon had met Laura and she couldn’t say she was surprised that she would do something like that. Ruthless, really was her middle name. “It’s actually a lot messier and more complicated than that. She thought she was doing them a favor but… my parents were never the same after that…” Liam took another deep breath, remembering the downfall of his family. “My point is… I don’t know what to do, Fal.”_

_“Are there any other options?” Fallon put on her businesswoman attitude and helped him navigate the problem. She knew that other than being his wife, that was the main reason he had immediately gone to her. He trusted her business senses to help him make these kind of life-changing decisions and she was not gonna let him down._

_“Well… My mom will definitely not give up, but I doubt anyone will vote for her, and Elliott believes they have enough stuff against her.” Liam looked down. It was clear that despite everything she had done, Liam cared about his mother and he wasn’t particularly thrilled with the whole scheme to bring her down. “There is my uncle Jamison, who just got admitted to a rehab center, and will have my aunt Deb as a representative at the meeting… so not really an option…” Liam continued to enumerate. “I don’t think any of Uncle Max’s wives want the job or could even take the job. My aunt Ophelia was head of the financial department for VKI when she was married to uncle Max but since the divorce, she wants nothing to do with it… She isn’t my mother’s biggest fan either, and then, there is my aunt Edith…”_

_“Ok, ok, Liam!” Fallon stopped him, holding both his hands in hers and trying to keep the focus on what was important. “There are a lot of you! I get it… But… Anyone you would actually vote for?”_

_“Elliott would be great, but he said he really doesn’t want it right now. After his recent problems with my mother, he feels like it’s not the time. Trust me, I’ve tried to convince him.” In Liam’s eyes, Elliott really was VKI’s biggest hope. Although, after the phone call with his cousin, it was clear that no matter what he said, now was not the time for Elliott to take control. “Then… My cousin Miles and my cousin Quinn have their own companies and Nathan is currently the head of our finance department. I would be fine with any of them taking over.” Liam nodded slightly, not completely sold on the alternatives. Even if he knew his cousins were professionally capable of taking over the business, Liam wasn’t convinced of the precision of their moral compasses._

_“You know you got a lot of power, Liam, and these are big decisions…”_

_“Power that I never asked for!” Liam sat up straighter in his place on the couch. “Fallon, I’m not like you. I had years of training in business as a teenager and I never, even for a second, wanted it! I actually hated it when my mom made me follow her around VKI all day. She has been harassing me for years to ‘take my seat’ on that board, and I had been successfully avoiding her until now. I really don’t want all this power…” he sighed, nervously running a hand through his hair._

_“I think that’s interesting, Liam… Sometimes, those best suited to power are people like you,” Fallon kissed his cheek and softly ran her hand through his beard, gently caressing it, hoping it would ease his nerves. “kind and compassionate leaders, who are also often those who never sought that kind of power.” All of a sudden what Fallon said started sounding reasonable to him. He only wanted to help his family. He wasn’t trying to take advantage of the situation to get to a top position, manipulate people or increase his financial gain. If he did it, if he took the job, it would be for the right reasons. “You never tried it before, Liam, and you are being given this power because people trust you. Your family trusts you.” Fallon couldn’t help looking into Liam’s eyes and see how pure and good his intentions were. Sure, he was scared but Fallon was more than certain that Liam had what it took to be a great leader. “You need to take it, because you must. As you said… There aren't any better alternatives and your family is counting on you.”_

_“Fallon, I don’t think I can do this.”_

_“I think you will surprise yourself, Liam.” Sometimes all he needed was a bit of a confidence boost and Fallon had discovered that she was particularly good at it when it came to the people she loved deeply. “I know this is not what you chose to do, nor is it what you love to do… But right now, it’s what you must do, and I think you will be really good at it. I’m proud of you.”_

_“You would be much better at it than me.” He replied softly, batting his eyes at her, before realizing what he had just said. “That’s it! You do it! I will give it to you.” It seemed simple and the perfect solution. Fallon had been born wanting to be a CEO, and Liam happened to find that extremely sexy. VKI would get a new grade A executive and Liam would find a new thrill in having his powerful wife get in bed with him every night._

_“C’mon…” Fallon laughed, not even considering he meant it seriously._

_“Consider it a late wedding present!” his tone and expressions changed her mind on the spot; he absolutely meant it. “I’m not even kidding, Fallon. It’s a good, solid company! You will love to run it!” his mood shifting as he explored the idea further. Liam couldn’t even believe he hadn’t thought of it sooner._

_“I would never.” Fallon shook her head and placed a quick peck on his lips. “But I will help you with whatever you need…”_

_“That doesn’t feel right to me. You would be doing the work, and I would be getting the recognition for it.” The more Liam thought about it, the more it felt like she just needed to accept the position, so he decided to insist again. “Just take it, Fallon. Please. We would hire you! I promise you we would get you a good salary, hon. I really think it’s our best option right now. You asked if there were any alternatives. You are it.”_

_“No.” she was quick and very straightforward. Fallon knew her limits well. “That doesn’t feel right to me.” The same argument that, as simple as it was, described the situation in a nutshell. “This is your family, Liam.”_

_“It’s yours too, now.” He continued to try to sweet talk her into accepting his offer._

_“I’m your wife. I think they would take it the wrong way and I don’t want them to hate me more than they already do. They clearly want someone of the family to represent the company, otherwise, they would have just agreed to hire an external CEO.”_

_“You would be doing us all a favor, Fal.” Liam could usually get anything he wanted from her with his pleading eyes but even that didn’t seem to be working at the moment. Was he losing his charm?_

_“My point is… It would make no sense for me to be the CEO of your family’s company, Liam.” Fallon couldn’t even be the CEO of her own family company, the one she had prepared all her life to take over. Now, she married Liam and just got a company out of it? That just felt like too intrusive of an introduction to the family she had just married into. “Not to mention your mother would probably kill me before she let that happen. A Carrington taking over VKI? I think that’s something she would kill or die for.”_

_“What if… Like I said, I have a lot of shares… What if I split them in half with you?” It seemed like the best solution for them both. He got to share some of the power, the work and recognition with Fallon, making him not feel as bad when he has to ask for her help constantly. Meanwhile, Fallon got a new challenge, which Liam was more than sure she would love to take on to help keep her mind busy after their recent loss._

_“Liam—”_

_“Before you say no… You know it’s common to give shares to a husband or a wife after a wedding. It’s not like I’m doing something out of the ordinary. I’m sure my very business-orientated family would understand that…”_

_“60/40, then. I think we will always decide together…” Fallon wasn’t totally convinced it was the right thing to do. She never saw herself working with Liam but the more she mapped it out in her mind, the more curious she was about it. “I hope we always decide together, but I want you to keep your majority between the two of us.”_

_“Whatever you wish as long as you do it with me.” Liam felt a weight being lifted off his chest. The relief of knowing he would not only have his wife’s support as well as have a more than capable partner to handle any business-related stress alongside him._

_“My husband… a CEO.” Fallon leaned in for a kiss, her lips not really wanting to detach themselves from Liam’s at any point. “That’s hot.” She whispered just a couple inches away from his face, before going for his bottom lip again. “I always thought you being a writer was the hottest thing ever but now… a writer/CEO? This must be what common people feel when they win the lottery!” Fallon wrapped both her arms around his neck, throwing her body over his, feeling a desire to turn the lustful kiss into something more, until she felt Liam’s hand slide inside her silk robe, his touch on her skin making her freeze completely._

_“Is everything okay?” he asked, clearly seeing her hesitation and sudden awkwardness._

_“I don’t think I’m ready.” She said, backing away and sitting up against some pillows on the couch, looking down at her hands, embarrassed that she couldn’t even explain to him what was going on in her head. “I’m sorry.”_

_“It’s okay…” Liam got closer to her, not wanting to invade too much of her personal space but still wanting to be close enough to hold her hand. “I get it that it’s a weird time to have sex. The past couple weeks have been pretty rough, and I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable in any way…” Liam explained._

_“I just feel… guilt.” She admitted, feeling almost disgusted with herself. “I felt guilty that I was enjoying it. I don’t want to feel good right now.” Liam didn’t know what to say. He wanted to help her, but he felt equally helpless, knowing perfectly well there was still a lot of recent trauma they both had to process._

_“We are not in a hurry, okay?” he placed a chaste kiss on her cheek. “It might take a while… for both of us.” He said, wanting to let her know that it also felt different to him. “It’s obviously harder for you because it was your body that went through all this but… I’m also scared of touching you in… in ways that might hurt you.”_

_“And the gruesome things you saw…” she sighed, worried that Liam would never look at her the same way as he did before the miscarriage. Sure, she knew he would love her, but she wasn’t sure he would be able to sexually feel the same desire for her again, which scared her more than she would admit. “You should have never been there. It’s different now.”_

_“Hey, hey, hey.” He frowned, panicking she would even think of something like that. “I love you and I was exactly where I should have been. I don’t want you to ever question it or think that’s a bad thing in any way.” Liam paused, taking one hand to her chin to make sure they were looking in each other’s eyes. “If anything, it made me love you more, appreciate you more and know the strength of your body.” He leaned forward, gently crashing his lips on hers before continuing. “A body that I love. Every single inch of. And… I want you to feel good. I think you deserve to feel all the pleasure in the world… and that orgasmic ecstasy… I want you to want that again, and when you do…” he paused, staring at her ocean eyes. “I will be here to make sure you feel all that again. I don’t ever want you to question that.”_

_“So, you are okay with no sex for an undetermined period of time? Considering it has already been 2 weeks...”_

_“Totally. For as long as you need. I’m gonna miss it but… I really want you to be comfortable when we have sex again.” He showed her a small smile._

_“Thank you…”_

_“Now…” he says, changing the topic of conversation to something somehow lighter. “Are you ready to pack and go to New York for some family business drama?” Liam observed as her expressions changed into less tense ones. “We leave tomorrow morning.”_

_“I don’t know if I should go, Liam…” After the emotional week they had with the miscarriage and Fallon easing herself back into work, the last thing she wanted was to visit a bunch of Carrington-hating Van Kirks. “My emotions are still all over the place. I think I might be in need of some peace and quiet…”_

_“I don’t want to leave you here alone.” Liam confessed. He worried about her all day. Liam knew Fallon’s happiness didn’t depend on him, but that he would also do anything he could to constantly have a smile on her face, which wasn’t particularly easy to do these days._

_“I’m a big girl. I can handle being alone for a few days.” Fallon made an effort to put a reassuring smile on her face for him. “You have nothing to worry about. I’ll be just fine.”_

_“Well… What if I can’t handle being without you for a few days?” He could be sappy and cheesy, and Fallon would typically roll her eyes and make fun of him for it, but she loved that side of Liam; when he was vulnerable and loved her unapologetically. “I don’t want to sleep without you... even if you have been hogging all the covers lately.”_

_“So needy, Mr. Ridley…” Fallon whispered, pulling him into a hug, and resting her head on his shoulder. She knew this was more than Liam just being needy._

_While she couldn’t sleep at night, she had noticed Liam couldn’t either. He turned carefully in bed not to disturb her. He sometimes sat up in bed and just waited for sleep to come without ever knowing Fallon was awake too. He was silent about it and Fallon had decided not to bring it up, but she knew that having her there by his side was his only comfort as he only eased himself to sleep after she reached for him in her pretend asleep state and wrapped herself around his body._

_“You win. I’ll go with you.” Fallon placed a kiss on his neck and took in the scent of his strong cologne. “You don’t ever have to sleep without me.”_

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙾𝙽 𝚄𝙽𝙻𝙸𝙼𝙸𝚃𝙴𝙳 𝙾𝙵𝙵𝙸𝙲𝙴 - 𝙰𝙵𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙽𝙾𝙾𝙽. 𝚆𝙴𝙳𝙽𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟷𝟾𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

“Hello, Allison.” The young brunette jumped off her seat upon hearing Liam’s low raspy voice. Fallon had told him she suspected Allison had a little crush on him, and ever since, Liam tried to be extra nice to her; at least when Fallon wasn’t present. “I’m here to pick up my wife.” Liam told her with the biggest smile on his face and a full bouquet of flowers in his arm, making it hard for Allison not to swoon over him.

“I-- I will call her.” Allison stuttered as she observed Liam from head to toe while trying to press Fallon’s office phone extension.

“No need!” Fallon said, walking out of her office and right into Liam’s arms, asserting her dominance. “I recognize my husband’s voice through doors and walls!” She placed a subtle peck on his lips and then took the flowers he was offering her. “And he is always on time!” she looked at the big clock on the wall over Allison’s desk. “More flowers?”

“Are you celebrating something?” Fallon threw an annoyed look at Allison due to her out of place questions, containing the yelling in front of Liam. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep.” Allison corrected herself right away, grabbing all the papers she could in front of her to find an escape from the situation.

“It’s okay.” Liam laughed it off, but Fallon still wasn’t sure about it, an irritated frown on her face until Liam wiped it out with another kiss. “We are celebrating our love…” Liam looked at Fallon in adoration and pulled her body closer to him; his lips crashing against her cheek this time.

“My phone is off for the rest of the day. You deal with it. Whatever it is.” Fallon warned Allison, holding Liam’s hand before they walked out together.

“Bye Allison!” Liam looked back and waved at the assistant before Fallon pulled his arm down, a hint of jealousy she couldn’t deny, even if she knew Liam only did it to get a reaction from her.

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝚅𝙺𝙸 𝙲𝙾𝙽𝙵𝙴𝚁𝙴𝙽𝙲𝙴 𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼, 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺 - 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝙵𝚁𝙸𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟸𝟿𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_Fallon and Liam had just entered the large conference room at the VKI headquarters hand-in-hand and, although Liam didn’t want to leave Fallon alone in Atlanta so soon after the miscarriage, he was already regretting bringing her into his family mess._

_While most of the summoned Van Kirks were already in the large room, Liam couldn’t see his mother anywhere. Of course, she would be late. However, Liam knew there was no way she would be missing the important meeting, so he just reminded himself to enjoy the peace of her not being there yet and tried to relax a little before his life changed forever._

_“Wow… This looks more like a party than a meeting…” Fallon stopped to look around the room, noticing the long crafts table filled with breakfast food by the big glass window that overlooked the busy city. “I didn’t know we could have had breakfast here…”_

_“Well—” Liam was just about to explain how he didn’t want them to be poisoned by one of his relatives and how the Van Kirks handled their big family meetings in a very professional setting, when he was cut off by the growing sound of the two women arguing by the gigantic fruit bowl on the table. “As I was saying… Things can get a bit crazy…” he nodded at his aunt Edith and his grandmother, Eliza; the scene making him even more uncomfortable than before._

_“It’s okay, Liam.” She laughed, holding his hand to go take a look at the food on the table. If the bacon looked good, there was no way she wasn’t trying it. “I’m used to crazy.”_

_Liam’s feelings of uncertainty and regret about the situation were only amplified when his cousin, one of the youngest Van Kirks, Violet, Uncle Max and Aunt Moira’s youngest child came into the room, immediately running to Fallon to admire her long crimson dress from up close, leaving Fallon visibly anxious._

_“You look like a princess!” Violet’s tiny voice was heard as she wrapped her arms around Fallon’s legs in a childlike hug, paralyzing her completely._

_“Oh, hey, Violet…” Liam tapped the little girl lightly on the shoulder to get her to let go of Fallon which she did without much hesitation, only jumping to hug his legs next._

_“It’s okay…” Fallon said in the softest tone Liam had ever heard from her. “Thank you... You look like a princess too.” She did her best to show the little girl a warm smile as Violet kept looking up at her, totally in love, her green eyes shining in admiration._

_“Violet!” Moira yelled from the end of the room, spotting her daughter next to Fallon and hopefully VKI’s next CEO, Liam. “What’s that on your dress?” Moira pointed to the border of Violet’s pale pink dress that had a stain from some sort of dark colored liquid. “Didn’t I tell you to be careful and not get your dress dirty?”_

_“It’s okay.” Liam gently stroked the little girl’s wavy brown hair as he noticed the tears building up in her eyes, a reaction to her mother’s public reprehension. “I get my clothes dirty all the time too.”_

_“Jules and I—” Violet tried to explain but was quickly cut off by her mother’s high-pitched voice that Fallon didn’t recall being as annoying as she found it to be now._

_“I told you I don’t want you playing with Julian! You play with Luke. That’s your brother! We have talked about this. Where is that kid’s mother?” Moira looked around the room for Jocelyn, probably wanting some sort of an excuse to start a fight._

_“But— Luke was also playing with us!" Fallon was getting angrier by the second, trying to keep her cool and not snap at Moira._

_“Rosie!” the old nanny walked fast in their direction, a constant distressed look on her face. “Take her to get changed.” Moira sighed and dragged Violet by her arm, making her walk closer to the nanny. “And keep my children away from the other kid!”_

_“Violet!” All their heads turned when they heard the little girl’s name being called out by her brothers, peeking through the door. “Come with us!” the two 9-year-old boys said, and everyone watched Violet sprint out of the room as fast as she could._

_“Great.” Moira didn’t even bother to stop her. “There they go with that little freak again…”_

_“That’s her brother! Julian is also her brother!” The annoyance got the best of Liam who had heard Moira mistreat Julian before on the few occasions they had been put together, regardless if the child was present or not._

_“Rosie, please go get her.” Moira instructed the nanny that left as quickly as she had gotten there._

_“You really shouldn’t talk like that about your children’s siblings!” Liam continued, still outraged by all he had just witnessed Moira say in front of Violet, who clearly loved both her brothers equally._

_“Liam, sweetie, you don’t really know the kid.” Moira got closer to Liam, totally ignoring Fallon by his side, a smug look across her face that only reflected her apparent sense of superiority. “Or his whore of a mother.” Fallon couldn’t believe what she was hearing as Moira continued her whispered rant just between the three of them. “She thought that by having Max’s baby she was set for life, but I’m not about to let that happen. Julian is just part of that little bitch’s plan to get rich… I’m certain you are not supportive of that.” Moira looked at Fallon from head to toe without ever acknowledging her. “You know how the gold diggers are…”_

_“If I recall correctly, he cheated on her with you…” Fallon’s jaw dropped at Liam’s sassy comeback. “If there was a gold digger in this situation…”_

_“They were in the middle of a divorce!” Moira yelled, but regulated her tone right after._

_“Liam…” Fallon grabbed his hand again, seeing how they were headed to a bigger fight. Usually, Fallon wouldn’t mind it. Fallon even thought that Liam looked especially hot when he was passionately angry about something, but she really didn’t want them to become part of the Van Kirk circus that early in the morning, and especially, not on Liam’s big day._

_“I’m sorry.” Liam turned to her, placing a quick kiss on her cheek and changing his tone right away. “I just think it’s despicable the way that kid is treated when he is completely innocent in the middle of all of this!”_

_“Well. I know what’s best for my children, and I would prefer it if you didn’t interfere with that. From what I know, you don’t have any, so… you are in no position to give out parenting advice!” Moira put on her best fake smile before turning around to leave, stopping only a few feet away. “And…” she said turning back, scanning the young couple with laser-like eyes. “Congrats, honey!”_

_“Wow…” Fallon said. They had barely arrived, and she couldn’t believe that was just the beginning of a long day with the family. The meeting was nowhere close to starting and Fallon was already wishing they had stayed in bed longer like Liam had begged her to._

_“I’m sorry, Fal.” Liam shifted his focus entirely to her. He didn’t even know where to start. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I’m afraid it won’t be the worst today… And…” he lowered his tone to almost a whisper so only the two of them could hear it. “I didn’t know they would bring the little kids to a business meeting. I saw that Violet caught you off guard.”_

_“It’s okay. She is adorable.” Fallon brushed it off, but Liam could see she was putting on a show. “We made our decision about kids, but I’m not expecting the rest of the world to get rid of them.”_

_“You know what I mean, and I saw your face, Fallon… when she ran to you. It’s okay if you want to talk about it.” Liam caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, discreetly looking around to see if no one had caught their little moment._

_“I don’t, and definitely not here and not now.” She pushed his hand away from her face. “Just this morning alone made me understand what you meant when you said you didn’t want to bring children into this family…” Fallon was shaking her head, both in rage and disbelief, when she saw the nanny carrying a crying Violet through the hallway, her heart tightening at the child’s distress. “They really don’t care who they hurt, even if it is their own children.” Liam studied the scene Fallon was staring at. “I get it now… You were right.”_

_“Give me one minute.” Liam said, leaving Fallon standing in the middle of the conference room by herself as he headed to the hallway where Violet had thrown herself on the floor, crying and kicking at her nanny who was desperately trying to pick her up from the carpet_

_Liam really didn’t really know what to do, but he figured something needed to be done since Moira seemed to be far away and unbothered by her daughter’s tantrum. Quite instinctively, Liam picked up the little girl from the floor without any previous warning. Violet, taken by surprise, stopped kicking and crying right away as Liam pulled her into a tight hug and rubbed her back._

_“It’s okay. I got her.” Liam told the nanny, and without any further explanation, headed to a couch in a more reserved area of the floor’s lobby where he sat with Violet on his lap, pulling out the handkerchief in his suit’s pocket to clean dry the tears and snot on her face._

_Through the conference room’s glass walls, Fallon could see Liam talking to her, and Violet responding with a couple of shy smiles. He was so good with kids, she thought. It’s so unfair he won’t get to be a father, was her next thought before Fallon decided to think about something that wouldn’t lead her into an emotional breakdown in a room full of Van Kirks. Whatever he was saying to her, it had to be sweet and funny, judging by Violet’s reactions at Liam’s exaggerated expressions._

_“Fallon?” she snapped out of her spiral of thoughts when she heard the older woman call her. “My new granddaughter!” Eliza said, before exchanging kisses with Fallon._

_“Hi!” Fallon put on her best smile, still feeling slightly intimidated by the matriarch’s perfect posture and firmness in her black pantsuit and perfectly done makeup and hair, a look Fallon hoped to be able to pull off as well when she got to her age._

_“Don’t tell me my grandson chickened out and just left you here!”_

_“Oh, no.” Fallon turned her body so Eliza could see through the glass walls. “He is over there with Violet.” She says as both of them watched Liam and Violet happily chatting with each other. “She was crying and Liam…”_

_“Liam just had to do something about it.” Eliza completed, remembering one of her grandson’s best qualities. “You know…” the lady started. “I thought my kids had turned out alright until they grew up and I watched them become parents. That’s when I saw all of my mistakes…” Eliza confessed, quite honestly to Fallon’s surprise. “A lot of the values I had hoped to instill in them were simply not there. However, by some mysterious miracle, some of my grandkids turned out okay. Liam is one of the good ones. You really got one of the few good men in this family, Fallon...” Eliza said, resting her hand on Fallon’s arms and locking eyes with hers, showing a genuinely warm smile that made Fallon feel the most welcomed by Liam’s family since they had gotten there, or maybe even ever._

_“Yeah, I feel really lucky to be loved by him.”_

_“And he is lucky to have you! We have yet to really get to know each other, but… I can see my grandson loves you, and I can see you love him. Not to mention, you clearly have a good head on your shoulders…” Fallon didn’t know how to react to the compliments coming from the Van Kirk matriarch, deciding to just stick to a simple smile. “I read Jack’s—Sorry, Liam’s book.” The grandmother explained when she noticed Fallon’s slight confusion, finishing it with a playful wink before she turned back her attention to the scene of Liam and Violet playing in the background. “Well… I think it’s safe to say that he will make a great father.” The older woman looked at Fallon that couldn’t manage to say a single word._

_“I—Uh, yeah.”_

_“No pressure! You just got married!” Eliza laughed at Fallon’s nervous stutter. “I really should go talk to him. I need to tell him something important before my daughter gets here. We will talk more later, sweetheart. We have a lot to discuss!” Eliza caressed Fallon’s cheek before walking in Liam’s direction and leaving Fallon again by herself._

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙰𝚁𝙸𝙰. 𝙳𝙾𝚆𝙽𝚃𝙾𝚆𝙽, 𝙰𝚃𝙻𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙰 - 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝙰𝙵𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙽𝙾𝙾𝙽. 𝚆𝙴𝙳𝙽𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟷𝟾𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

“You look absolutely beautiful…” Liam said as he opened the door for Fallon, letting her in front of him and into the interior of the restaurant.

“Mr. and Mrs. Ridley come with me, please. We have your table ready.” Fallon and Liam were well known in most of Atlanta’s restaurants, making it easy to reserve a table with very short notice while always having personalized service at arrival. “I will be back shortly to take your order. May I bring you your usual bottle of wine?”

“Yes. Thank you, Martin.” Liam showed the older man a wide smile and observed as Fallon slowed herself down to observe the family sitting on the table next to them. Fallon seemed somehow mesmerized at the scene. Yes, it was unusual to see a family out to dinner with little kids in a restaurant like that, he thought, realizing that was exactly where Fallon’s eyes were fixated. The two little kids.

From Liam’s quick observation, the little girl whose long brown locks fell down her entire back had to be around 5, while the little boy couldn’t have been any older than 2 years old. They wore coordinated outfits and sat quietly as the little girl finished her dessert and the baby tried to grab some of the strawberry shortcake his sister was eating for himself. “Is everything okay, babe?” Liam’s voice made her snap out of her thoughts’ bubble and back into reality.

“Yes, yes.” Fallon shook her head, trying not to stare again at the family as the dad asked for the check. “I—Hm. Everything is fine.” Fallon picked up the menu and decided to entertain her eyes with that instead, while in the back of her mind she overanalyzed if what she was feeling in that moment was her biological clock ticking or not.

“Oh!” Liam said, feeling something touch his leg, the sound of his surprise making Fallon take her eyes off the menu. It didn’t take her long to notice Liam looking down at something by his chair. Or better said, someone by his chair.

“I’m so sorry!” The woman previously sitting in the table next to them approached Liam in a hurry, evidently embarrassed by the situation. “I’m sorry he is bothering you. He is a bit of a runner these days.” The lady said, as she attempted to pick up the baby, already trying to get under Fallon and Liam’s table.

“It’s okay. He is adorable.” Liam said, reaching for under the table, having a better angle to pick up the baby than his mother. “Here you have him!” Liam exclaimed, passing the baby into his mom’s arms while looking at the little boy in absolute awe as he babbled something none of them could really understand.

Fallon observed the scene in total silence, taking in every little bit of Liam’s interaction with the baby, an unusual kind of butterflies fluttering inside her. “You can’t run away from your mom, buddy. We don’t want you to get lost.” He said, gently tickling the baby’s leg and getting a giggle out of him.

“How old is he?” Fallon finally escaped her train of thoughts and asked what she had been trying to figure out unsuccessfully on her own, since her baby related knowledge was very limited.

“Almost 18 months!” the lady said proudly, adjusting the very active baby in her arms. “I will leave you two to have your dinner in peace now.” She added, noticing her husband and daughter were waiting for her by their table, ready to leave. “Again, I’m so sorry. Enjoy your dinner!” the woman said, instructing the baby to wave at the young couple.

“What’s on your mind?” Liam asked as Fallon stared blankly at the menu, her head clearly someplace else.

“18 months.” Fallon repeated and Liam didn’t pick it up right away. “That would be about the age of our baby.” Fallon said casually, feeling relieved immediately after saying it out loud. “Probably a little younger.” Fallon felt proud of herself. She was finally able to speak about it without feeling overly emotional, even moments after seeing a baby that looked perfectly like he could have been their son. The same dirty blonde hair and blue eyes Fallon once imagined for the baby they never got to meet.

“Oh.” Liam said, being caught off guard, examining her expressions to try to figure out how she was feeling.

“Probably a lot cuter too. If that’s possible.” she added, a sense of peace when thinking about _their_ baby that she never thought she would feel again. That was the confirmation she needed. She had moved on. She was ready. She wanted a baby.


	2. begin again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies in advance, this is a bit long and random...  
> Also, beware... There is a *very explicit* scene in the middle of this.

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙳𝚁. 𝙰𝙳𝙳𝙸𝚂𝙾𝙽 𝙼𝙾𝙽𝚃𝙶𝙾𝙼𝙴𝚁𝚈'𝚂 𝙾𝙵𝙵𝙸𝙲𝙴 - 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝚃𝚄𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟸𝟼𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_There was nothing to see there, and despite having told him over and over again that she would be more than fine going by herself, Liam had insisted on being there until “the very end” and nothing was going to change his mind, so she didn’t even try._

_All Fallon could think about was the last time she had been there laying on her back and how that had been the beginning of that whole nightmare. Liam sat by her side, his hand holding hers, and gently tracing random patterns on the back of it, just like he had done then, offering her the most comforting smile every time she mustered enough confidence to turn her head and look him in the eyes._

_“Okay. You can get dressed.” Addison said, finally letting go of her._

_“I will be over there.” Liam said, placing a kiss on her cheek before getting up and moving to the other side of the room to give her some time and privacy to recompose herself._

_Fallon felt like she could finally breathe again. She closed her eyes and took a few seconds to take a long deep breath, waiting for some motivation to move from the examination table. She swiftly put on her black leather pants and tucked in her white blouse nicely, before slipping on her heels again and joining Liam, already sitting in front of Addison’s desk, patiently waiting for her._

_“The good news is… Everything seems perfectly normal. It healed properly and there is no tissue left, which means you don’t need any additional treatment. On the other hand, your hormone levels might be a little off for a while. Your HGC levels are exactly where I expected them to be at this time.” Addison explained, looking desperately at Fallon for some type of reaction. “So, I would recommend waiting for your first period. Give it a month or so before trying again, just to level everything out and avoid misleading results since it takes a while for the body to bounce back.” Addison suggested while she typed some of the appointment’s information into Fallon’s file on the computer._

_“We are not trying again.” Fallon’s voice was sharp and very direct, avoiding looking at Liam as she said it._

_“Oh.” Addison stopped typing. “You were so excited…” she took her eyes off the screen, catching Fallon going through the stuff in her handbag, mostly to avoid making eye contact with the other two people in the room. “I thought this was something you really wanted right now.”_

_“We decided we don’t want kids after all.” It hurt her as she said it but not as much as what she had just gone through in the past weeks._

_“Yeah. For now. It’s not something we are considering anytime soon.” Liam added, reaching for Fallon’s hand, cold as ice when he finally touched it._

_“Are you sure, Fallon?” Since Addison knew Fallon wasn’t someone who gave up easily, she was expecting a different reaction from her. “This was your first pregnancy and you shouldn’t let one miscarriage change your mind. Like I told you before, it really is more common than you think, and you are in perfect health to conceive again if you wish.”_

_“Fal…” Liam whispered and squeezed her hand a little, noticing her anxious trembling beneath his touch, as she was probably afraid to break into tears in front of Addison again._

_“If you want, I can recommend some counselors that can help you with grief.”_

_“It’s okay. I’m fine.” she said, raising her head with the determination and all the strength she had been gathering until then. “It’s gonna be just the two of us.” Fallon repeated firmly. It had been a difficult decision they had not taken lightly. If there was one thing that she had learned through her short journey towards motherhood was that it required a lot of commitment. It got personal and took over her emotions completely. She felt everything a thousand times harder than before and that was something she didn’t think she could afford to have happening at the moment. “Liam and I have a lot going on right now… It wasn’t the right time to have a baby anyway. It’s probably for the best.” She said, feeling a sharp pain in her chest as the words came out, and not even knowing how that had hurt Liam as well._

_The bleeding had entirely stopped now, and Fallon had taken it as a point of completion, refusing to talk about it with Liam since she felt like there really was no point in reliving it. However, Liam thought they were simply burying their demons alive. Fallon wanted to pretend it never happened and he knew that sooner or later, those demons would escape their graves and come back to haunt them._

_“Are you sure?” Addison tried again._

_“I think it will be okay, doctor.” Liam reassured. “Fallon and I are both seeing therapists already and… I know I’m gonna be going through that in my individual sessions.” Liam said, a hint of sadness in his voice as he wasn’t as hopeful Fallon would do the same voluntarily. “And…” he turned his head to his wife. “Hopefully, we will go through it in our couple sessions too.” They had made an agreement: if therapy was going to work, they would both have to be willing to talk about every issue the other thought it was relevant to bring up. No matter what._

_“Yeah, there will be plenty of talk about that. I’m good.” Fallon said in an irritated tone. There was no escape for her, and she knew it._

_“Well, if you aren’t looking to conceive anymore,” Addison said, looking for a change of subject to ease the tension in the office. “we need to discuss contraception.” She opened her desk’s drawer and pulled out some condoms from inside it. “I assume you know what these are.”_

_“Can I get a UID?” Fallon asked right away, completely ignoring the condoms Addison was holding. She had done her research at home and figured out exactly what she wanted._

_“What’s that?” Liam asked, never having heard the term before._

_“It’s an intrauterine device for long term pregnancy prevention.” Addison explained, leaving Liam a little even more confused. He had never heard of a device for the uterus, nor did he know what exactly to expect from it. However, he knew exactly what long term meant, and he wasn’t sure what to think of it._

_“Can I get one?” Fallon seemed totally set on her choice._

_“We can definitely look into that and determine if you want a hormonal or nonhormonal IUD and for how long it should last. We can pick one and put it in soon if that’s really what you want… But I think you would be just fine going back to your pill like you were before, Fallon.” Addison thought Fallon’s reaction was just the remaining trauma speaking, and knowing how excited she was before, Addison expected her to want to get pregnant again in a few months, making the IUD a bit of an extreme measure in the meantime._

_“When you said long term… Is it months?” Liam wondered, probably thinking the same as Addison. He didn’t want to pressure Fallon into anything, and Fallon certainly knew how to take care of her own body better than anyone else, but Liam felt like she could change her mind at any time._

_“Years. They last many years. 3 up to 12 years depending on the one we pick.”_

_“Oh, wow! That’s a long time.” Addison laughed as Liam’s eyes widened in surprise._

_“But they are also easily removable. One appointment and it would be done. It would be as if it was never there in the first place!” Addison explained, as Liam listened attentively._

_“Are there any risks?” he asked, reluctantly, looking between Fallon and Addison._

_“Not really. Just like any of the other contraceptive methods. I usually recommend them to women who are done having kids, because of the extended period of time they work for, but lately we have been using them on younger girls that still have a lot of years until they want to have a baby.” Addison explained, and Liam couldn’t understand how Fallon fell under any of the two categories._

_“Yeah, that’s what I want.” she reinforced. “I would prefer something like that. I really don’t want to have to worry about it too much.” Fallon was determined to do everything in her power to avoid another honeymoon accident. The less she could mess up, the better, and she felt that an UID was definitely low maintenance enough to keep her peace of mind._

_“While we figure out that situation, I would recommend you use an additional contraception method, like a condom…” Addison slid some across the table and Liam picked them up. “Just to be safe, since it seems like you are trying to avoid a pregnancy, and well, we know you can get pregnant easily.”_

_“Okay… We will do that.” Fallon nodded, discarding it quickly as she wasn’t even sure they would be having sex any time soon, and then glancing at Liam who was staring down at the condoms in his hands like he had never seen any before. “Am I officially done with this?”_

_“Yes, Fallon. I do want you to repeat some blood work in a few weeks, but you don’t even have to come in unless I spot something wrong with it, you have any concerns or don’t feel well… Otherwise, it’s done.” That was all she wanted to hear. It was officially over. All she wanted now was to move on and forget it ever happened. “I do hope we can discuss this again someday and you come to take your IUD out… Whenever you are ready, of course.”_

* * *

####  **𝙴𝚇𝚃. 𝙳𝙾𝚆𝙽𝚃𝙾𝚆𝙽 𝙰𝚃𝙻𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙰 - 𝙼𝙸𝙳𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝚃𝙷𝚄𝚁𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟷𝟿𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

Fallon could not walk any faster in her bright red 4 inches heels as she spotted her mother by the valet of the café that they had agreed to meet each other at one hour ago. It was very unlike her to be late for anything, but her appointment had run a little overtime and she had vastly underestimated the walking distance between the doctor’s office and the café downtown.

“I know, I know! Before you say it… I know I’m late!” Fallon started once she stopped in front of the blonde woman.

“This was not how we raised you!” Alexis exclaimed, taking Fallon a special effort not to throw a ‘You didn’t raise me’ in her face right after. “Fallon, I have been waiting for you for almost one hour!” Alexis continued, roughly taking the keys from the valet boy before they both got into her black Porsche Cayenne. “Just so you know, I was about to leave without you! First, you make me have lunch by myself and then you make me wait for 15 minutes here in the middle of the street!” Alexis complained as she drove off, so fast that when Fallon finally managed to put on her seatbelt they were already blocks away from the rustic café.

“I’m sorry but I got a last-minute spot for an appointment and it ran a little late!” Fallon tried to explain, holding on to the car’s door as Alexis kept up with her fast and furious driving.

“Was this appointment more important than our very special mother-daughter bonding time at the spa?” Alexis took her eyes briefly off the road to glance at Fallon.

“Actually, it was.” She replied simply, not wanting to get into too much detail.

“Care to share?”

“Not really.”

“Fallon, I am your mother!” Alexis hit the break abruptly at the red light she was not expecting to see, taking some time to try to get some answers out of Fallon while she waited for it to turn back to green.

“And that’s exactly why I am here now.” Fallon smiled, knowing what she had gone into Addison’s office for that morning, and how her mother would freak out if she told her. “Listen, I’ve told you I’m sorry. We are on our way to the spa and I can even make some time so we can play Barbie afterwards!” Fallon said ironically, remembering in the back of her mind the endless number of times as a child she had asked Alexis to play with her and had been totally ignored by her mother. “I told you we would go on a mother-daughter date and here I am!”

“I think I should know…” Alexis pouted, hoping Fallon would give in and tell her more. “I have been planning this day for so long, Fallon. First you cancel lunch, then you arrive late for our pampering session. The least you can do is explain why…”

“I told you. I had a last-minute appointment that ran a little late.” Fallon repeated firmly, now getting slightly annoyed at her mother’s insistence.

“Is everything okay?” Alexis asked, noticing the change of tone in Fallon’s voice into a more serious one.

“Yes. There is nothing to worry about. It was just a routine appointment.” Fallon lied, hoping it would put an end to all the questions.

“If it was routine, why was it more important than our date?” Alexis questioned, the little motherly instincts she had, sensing that Fallon wasn’t being totally truthful with her, and that there was certainly more to it that she didn’t want to talk about. Alexis just couldn’t figure out what and it was driving her insane. “Why did it have to be so last-minute?”

“Can you please let it go?” Fallon asked, her frown and irritated tone being enough for Alexis to drop the long list of follow-up questions she had already lined-up in her mind.

“I thought you wanted to make up for lost time and enjoy the little mother-daughter things we should have done when you were little.”

“Again… I do. That’s why I’m here. Enough with the whining.” Fallon rolled her eyes as Alexis pulled into the parking lot, thankful that their tumultuous car ride was coming to an end. “Park over here.” Fallon instructed, pointing to a spot right by the reputable beauty center’s front door. “C’mon, we are already late for our massages.” She said, swiftly getting out of the black SUV, hurrying to get to the peace and quiet of the massage room where she would not be bothered by her mother’s questions.

“Hi, Coco!” Alexis greeted the beauty center’s owner that was personally waiting for them in the lobby. “So sorry we are this late. Fallon was…” Alexis looked up and down at her daughter, semi-closing her eyes as she tried to think of the right words to describe the reason for their lateness since Fallon really hadn’t given her one and didn’t seem interesting in doing so. “Fallon was… closing a very important deal.”

“Yeah, you could say that.” Fallon muttered to herself.

“You know we are never this—"

“But…” Alexis was about to go on a little rant when Fallon interrupted her. “We are here now and in desperate need of some relaxation! So, can we please get started?”

“Of course!” Coco smiled, walking towards the hidden hallway Fallon and Alexis both knew very well. “You can go in. They are already waiting for you.” The short lady in edgy glasses directed them to the large doors that opened to the center’s spa space at the end of the hallway.

“Oh, Coco.” Fallon was already on her way when she stopped, turning around to face the beauty guru for another question. “One more thing… Is my hair stylist around today?”

“I think she is.”

“Hm, good. Do you think she has some free time after my massage for a haircut?” Fallon asked, making Alexis walk closer to her upon hearing the word ‘haircut’. “I think it’s time for a change and since I’m here I thought I could get that done today too.”

“I can check that for you.” Coco said. “I will let you know after your massage. Is that okay?”

“It’s perfect, thank you!” Fallon nodded, along with a smile, before almost bumping into her mother when she turned around and realized Alexis was standing right behind her, creepily listening to her conversation.

“A haircut, huh?” Alexis winked suggestively.

“Is there anything wrong with that?” Fallon rolled her eyes in annoyance, not really understanding what her mother was trying to imply.

“Well… Like our other friend Coco Chanel once said… A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.” Alexis quoted the style icon, making Fallon’s heart race a little faster. Was it possible that her mother knew somehow? Did she suspect anything?

“Oh, please. I’m just cutting a few inches off my hair!” Fallon scoffed, before starting to make her way down the hall again, a little faster than before. “Stop reading into everything!” she yelled at her mother, while trying to take her own advice.

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙺𝙸𝚃𝙲𝙷𝙴𝙽. 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺 - 𝙰𝙵𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙽𝙾𝙾𝙽. 𝚃𝙷𝚄𝚁𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙹𝚄𝙽𝙴 𝟷𝟾𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_Fallon was so absorbed with the Excel spreadsheet and the PowerPoint presentation she always insisted on making herself, that she didn’t even budge when the apartment’s door opened, and Liam’s keys hit the glass bowl on top of the foyer’s console table._

_Just like he does every day after he gets home from work, Liam wasted no time before starting to look for his wife. Today, his mission had been fairly easy to accomplish as the soft humming that echoed coming from the kitchen gave Fallon’s location away within seconds._

_“Fallon?” His eyes widened in shock, not sure what to think about what he was seeing. “What did you do?” his tone got immediately sadder as he rushed to her by the large kitchen island. “Oh, babe…” he whispered, his eyes travelling her body to see if he could notice anything else that was different._

_“What?” She paused what she was doing on the laptop to face him, noticing the disappointment in his eyes right away._

_“Oh, Fallon…” Liam whined as his fingers found their way to Fallon’s beautiful long hair, intertwining themselves in the nicely curled locks. “Why did you do this?”_

_“Oh, that.” She sat up straighter in the bar stool, looking down at her own hair in Liam’s hand. “You don’t like it?”_

_“It’s not that I don’t like it…” Liam looked at the black hair between his fingers, trying to come up with a verbalization for his very confusing thoughts. “It’s just… weird.” He said, for a lack of a better word. “You don’t look like you.”_

_“Well, I’m sorry if I felt I needed a change!” Fallon said, unconsciously raising her voice and pushing his hand away from her hair, not wasting any time before jumping into defensive mode. “I happen to like it a lot! I’m sorry you don’t!”_

_“Fallon.” He warned, knowing she used everything she could to pick a fight with him these days. “Don’t even start…”_

_“Start what?” she turned her attention back to the bright screen while keeping the childish pout on her face._

_“I’m not fighting with you about your hair color.” The more he looked at her, the more the black hair gave him a sort of dominatrix vibes, which he couldn’t deny he appreciated. Maybe he could get used to it, Liam thought. “It’s fine. You look beautiful either way.”_

_“I thought you said it was weird.” She folded her arms, looking at him as Liam seemed to be stuck daydreaming about something while deeply staring at her. “Liam!” she called him out, regaining his attention._

_“I’m just not used to it. I think it’s normal that I’m a little shocked. You looked totally different this morning when you woke up next to me!” Liam tried to explain. He didn’t want her to feel bad about a new hairstyle, but he was still taken aback by the dramatic change. “You have to understand that I woke up next to an almost-blonde and I’m going to bed with a black-haired girl, Fallon.” He paused to stare at her extremely dark hair again. “This is not even brunette. This is full-on goth black! It’s like I’m cheating…”_

_“It’s okay if you hate it. I just…” she sighed. “I wanted something new. Fresh. I never had my hair this dark before and I felt this was a good time to try it.”_

_“At least you didn’t shave it…” Liam showed her a little playful smile, hoping it would ease her mood._

_“That might have crossed my mind.” Fallon admitted, recalling the impulsive moment she walked into the random New Yorker hair salon, feeling she could have done everything and anything with her hair, not even caring if the strange hairdresser she had been assigned wasn’t as good as her high qualified hairstylist. “But then I realized it wouldn’t be a good look for me and that I love my hair too much to do that.”_

_“I love your hair too.” Liam leaned forward for a kiss, followed by a comfort sniff on her neck. “Even your jet-black hair. Let’s just… please leave it alone from now on, Fallon.”_

_“I will.” She said, sealing her promise with another kiss._

_“Has anyone else seen it?” he questioned, knowing he certainly wouldn’t be the only one shocked by the sudden change._

_“June.” Fallon bit her lip. “She might have jumped when she saw me walk in. Apparently, I scared her.”_

_“So, you didn’t go into VKI after your little hair change?” he asked, and she knew exactly where he was trying to get to._

_“No, I didn’t see your mother.” She laughed. “I decided to work from home today.”_

_“Oh, that’s good. I thought you just had headed home earlier without me when I went to check on you.” He fake-pouted, looking for some empathy from her and maybe another kiss._

_“No, I just didn’t go back after lunch.” She clarified. “That’s why I don’t take your ride offers to the office… I like to be able to leave whenever I want.”_

_“And I was thinking you just didn’t like my music choices…”_

_“No, I totally love to listen to your cheesy love songs in the morning.” She said, a spontaneous smile showing up on her face as she remembers Liam happily singing along to whatever song is on the radio during their car rides, his adorable tiny dancing in the driver’s seat making up for his lack of singing talent. “I’m preparing everything for my meeting with your mother tomorrow. I know she hates me, and she will try everything in her power to make me look like a fool, but I want her to see that I plan on doing good work with my VKI shares and if possible... Respect me as a professional, since I have very little hope she will ever respect me as your wife.”_

_“Don’t say that...” Liam held her hand. Fallon always said she really didn’t care about what Laura thought about their relationship, and that might have been true for a while, but now that they were actually married and since they were obligated to be with her more often, Liam had realized that part of Fallon wished she could have a semi-normal relationship with her mother-in-law. Of course, they were expected to hate each other, after all that’s how mothers-in-law are supposed to be, but Laura really took it to an extreme. “Just please try not to scare my mother to death tomorrow morning when you walk into that meeting.” He asked playfully, hiding his real concern about Fallon’s first unsupervised meeting with his mother._

_“I wish my hair had that kind of power.” Fallon said, before correcting herself right away, remembering she had promised Liam she would do everything in her power to build a healthier relationship with Laura. If she allowed it. “Sorry, sorry! I promise I will play nice!” she paused thinking about the right words for a promise she could keep. “I promise… I promise I will not resort to physical violence.”_

_“Good.”_

_“That is, if she doesn’t start it!”_

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙷𝙾𝙼𝙴 𝙾𝙵𝙵𝙸𝙲𝙴 - 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝙰𝙵𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙽𝙾𝙾𝙽. 𝚃𝙷𝚄𝚁𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟷𝟿𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

It was a rare happening, especially for a weekday, but after their epiphanic dinner, Fallon had decided to take the next day off to focus on herself, relax and hopefully sort out her goals for the upcoming months.

She started by letting herself sleep in, and when she woke up in an unusually great mood, Liam was already running late for his morning meeting, leaving her deprived of the leisure time in bed with him she intended to have. However, after her date day at the spa with her mother and immersing herself in a long hot bubble bath as soon as she got home from her day out, Fallon was ready to get from Liam what his morning meeting had denied her.

Getting out of the tub, and still in her bathrobe, Fallon made what would be an unsuccessful attempt at a call to her husband, ending up with her listening to his voicemail recording. Frustrated with the difficulty to reach Liam, Fallon decided the next best thing to sex would be food, and dinner would certainly be underway already at that time in the evening. Dropping the bathrobe to the bathroom floor, Fallon didn’t even bother getting dressed, just slipping into her night robe instead before going downstairs to check on what they were having for dinner. However, much to her surprise, when about to enter the hallway that led into the kitchen, Fallon spotted a yellowish light from the corner of her eye, that seem to come from Liam’s office. A very clear sign that the dinner menu could certainly wait.

Fallon tiptoed through the hardwood floored hallway, her barefoot making her increasingly closer presence to Liam’s office going unnoticed. He wouldn’t be expecting her since it was much earlier than her usual time to get home, a perfect occasion to surprise drop by his office and tell him what she had been up to that day.

She stood by the door frame of the room, in her leopard print ruffled night robe, just quietly waiting for him to notice her presence. It usually didn’t take him that long, but that evening, his eyes were blankly staring at the bright computer screen and his mind seemed to be somewhere really far away when Fallon finally gave in.

“Hi…” she started out shyly, walking into his dim-lighted home office and seeing him finally become aware of her presence as she shut the door behind her close. He looked tired, Fallon thought. “I called.”

“I’m sorry…” he sighed, getting his phone from the edge of his desk, pressing the button on the side of the device. “I forgot to turn it on after my meeting. I think my subconscious thought that if the phone was turned off, I wouldn’t have to worry about all my unread emails…” Liam said, still in his navy-blue suit, his white shirt underneath having most of its top buttons undone as he had probably gotten too hot under his lamp’s warm light. His hair had lost his perfectly combed shape and his eyes were begging to have the chance to be closed for a few minutes.

“How was your day?” she asked, stopping by his messy desk.

“It was… intense.” He sighed, the tiredness she had seen in him, being equally evident in his voice now. “The meeting didn’t go so well. I’m really behind and I’m not sure I will meet my next deadline... which sucks.” Liam admitted, looking between the sea of words on the computer screen and Fallon’s eyes.

“What are you doing?” Fallon asked, pushing Liam’s body against the back of the large armchair and sitting down sideways on his lap to have a better look at his computer screen.

“Well, I was trying to write but I can’t even come up with 100 words. You were right.” Liam said, wrapping his arms protectively around her body and pulling her closer to him, resting his chin on her shoulder.

“I was?” she asked, slightly confused about what he meant.

“Your notes.” He clarified. “I’m missing some scenes that are important but now I don’t know where to fit them in the story… Nothing is working, and I have a deadline coming soon.” Liam sighed again, clearly frustrated with the whole situation. “Not to mention I still have that pile over there to go through…” he said, nodding to the VKI folders on top of his desk, feeling the exhaustion throughout his body and wishing he was already in bed sleeping. 

“I know you will figure it out.” Fallon reassured him, reaching for his neck to kiss it softly, making a shiver run through his spine at the touch of her lips against his skin. “You don’t have to worry about VKI. I will take care of it for you tomorrow.” She added, continuing with the subtle kisses on his neck, making Liam close his eyes and enjoy the feeling of her sneaky tongue right under his ear lobe. “You focus on your book and on that deadline coming up and leave the rest to me.” She whispered and heard a low moan escape from him in return. “I think you are done for today, though. You are clearly in need to relax and forget about it and… that’s what I am here for now.”

“You are probably right.” He opened his eyes to find how close her face actually was to his, making it inevitable to pull her into a kiss. In the midst of their tongue’s battle, Liam found his unoccupied hands instinctively running through the semi-translucent robe, one of them stopping to cup her boob as the other kept a firm grip on her waist. “I completely blocked. It’s not happening tonight.” He said, already a little out of breath, looking down to watch his hand lightly squeeze her boob, realizing she had nothing underneath the thin robe. “I see you came prepared.” He smirked, moving the fabric slightly to the side so his fingers could reach her hardened nipple beneath it.

“That was accidental. I didn’t mean to come here to… tease you...” She suggestively looked to his lap as he twisted himself under her, his evident excitement bringing some discomfort to his already too tight pants. “I actually came here to tell you something important.” She whispered in his ear, holding his head with both her hands and tangling her fingers on his hair before pulling him into another lengthy kiss. “I’m afraid you might be too distracted to pay attention now…” she whispered again, scooting herself slowly to the center of his lap so she could feel his growing bulge right under her already wet core, getting another moan out of him when she found it.

“I’m listening…” he said, adjusting Fallon’s position on his lap, turning her body so she faced forward, and having to hold his breath at the feeling of her ass grinding against his crotch.

“I don’t think these are the ideal conditions to tell you what I need to tell you…” Fallon managed to say as she closed her eyes when she felt Liam’s arms wrap around her torso and one of his hands undo the knot on the front of her robe, leaving her bare skin exposed. She breathed in some air as Liam pushed the fabric to the side, giving his hands the access needed to the front of her body, one of them blindly travelling down her belly and stopping between her legs.

“No panties either? Hmm…” Liam let out a moan, feeling the constant friction of her ass against him, the tightness of his pants only adding to his arousal. “C’mon… Go on… Say what you need to say…” he whispered behind her ear, making his right hand drop to her wet core, his fingers running through it, spreading the accumulated wetness, before focusing on teasingly rubbing her clit.

“I…” she huffed, feeling a growing heat between her legs as his fingers continued moving in a constant circular motion that she had been craving since that morning. “I got my IUD out today.” She said, feeling his fingers slow down. Alarmed that somehow, she had misunderstood the signs he had given her, Fallon looked back at him, hoping his facial expressions would help her examine what he thought about it.

“Oh…” Liam uttered, being caught by surprise. Unsure of what was the right procedure, he decided to focus on what they were doing before, kissing her cheek before picking up the pace again with his hand. “So, you did change your mind…” He said, feeling her body tense up by the second. “I guess… you are ready?” he asked and observed attentively as Fallon just pushed his hand away and got up, leaving him no time to think about what was happening before she was straddling his lap so they could talk face-to-face.

“I want your honest opinion.” She said seriously, trying to ignore her urge to buck her hips against him. “I will still have sex with you afterwards anyways because I’m already too horny, but… How do you feel about trying for a baby?”

“Remember when I told you we could try again whenever you wanted?” Liam’s hands fought through the flowy print robe until they found Fallon’s ass cheeks, applying the right amount of pressure to slide her body closer towards his center. “I was just waiting for you to ask for it.” He said, trying not to melt as he stared into the depths of her soul through her blue eyes and noticed her quiet restlessness. This had been a moment Liam had been waiting for the past 2 years. He knew the day would come; he just wasn’t expecting this would be the way they would be having that conversation.

“Well, Liam Ridley, I want a baby.” She smiled as she made her official request, being caught by surprise when Liam wasted no time in making sure he got his mouth to meet her chest, his lips roaming from her neck to her boobs, struggling to stop in a single spot for more than a few seconds.

“I think we need to get to practice…” he said, taking a break to breathe in some air before running his tongue through her exposed nipples, making Fallon arch her back into his arms supporting it. “You know what they say… Practice makes perfect…”

“Hmmm… yes.” Fallon moaned. “I…” she struggled to keep a coherent sentence as his touch kept overwhelming her senses. “I thought I was supposed to be the one to help you relax.” She said, pushing her palms against his shoulders, in an attempt to get an opportunity to regain her posture and take control back despite not really wanting him and his talented tongue to stop.

“You know nothing turns me on like the sound of your moans…” he smirked, helplessly groaning as she kept rolling her hips forward, meaning to get that exact reaction from him.

“Likewise.” She whispered to him, undoing some more buttons on his shirt before leaning into his bare chest to take in the strong smell of his cologne. A scent she recognized as his, and his only, and that brought her an unexplainable sense of comfort whether she was riding him or trying to fall asleep against him at night.

“It’s hot...” Liam said, getting rid of his suit’s navy-blue jacket, intending to take his shirt off next, before he was stopped by Fallon.

“Leave it.” She bit her lip, at the sight of her hot and bothered husband, already sweating underneath her. “I like the shirt… Brings back all those…” she paused, her mind flashing to their dangerous workplace quickies. “Hmm… those great office times.”

“Where were we?” he asked as his hand travelled between them to reach her wet center again, his thumb finding her sensitive bundle of nerves without any problem. “I think I remember…” he said, applying a little pressure that made Fallon shiver.

“Like I said…” she breathed out slowly, trying to not give into the growing warm tingling feeling at the bottom of her stomach. “I should be the one helping you out.” Fallon gripped tightly the hard bulge on his pants, making Liam shut down his eyes immediately and groan in a mixture of pleasure and extreme discomfort, struggling to keep the steady pace he had going on her clit. “Let me help you, sweetheart.” Fallon said, raising her hips to pull her body far enough from his lap, giving herself enough room to undo his belt, the last barrier before she could unbutton his pants so her hand could squeeze between the fabric.

“Oh, Fal…” he huffed desperately at the feeling of her cold hand wrapping around his dick, instinctively making him buck his hips upwards.

“I’m sorry…” she whispered, leaning in for a kiss before she felt Liam’s fingers leave her clit to slide inside her, their curled tips tickling her g-spot and turning their kiss into a loud gasp. “Did you jerk off this morning, honey?” she whispered in his ear, making Liam add a third finger inside her, sliding them in and out of her harder than before, while they both fantasized about it being his dick, pulsating inside her, instead of against her hand. The slight throbbing, along with the trace of precum and popping veins, being clear signs that he had been on the edge of an orgasm for a while before Fallon liberated him from the enclosure of his pants.

“No…” he moaned as she squeezed him a little before running her hand slowly up and down it a few times. Just enough to get all the sweet sounds she thrived on getting from him. “Hm. I… I didn’t get to.” Turns out Fallon had not been the only one that hadn’t gotten her usual morning orgasm. “I was a little late and didn’t have the time to take care of that...” he panted, a tingling feeling in his balls as Fallon kept slowly stroking him.

“Good.” Fallon got up unexpectedly, Liam’s fingers slipping out of her and leaving a puzzled expression in his face as she stood in front of him just ogling his very evident but still partially hidden erection. “What are you waiting for? Get them off.” Fallon demanded impatiently, pointing to the dark pants but only letting Liam get the pants and white boxers to his knees before she pushed his back against the armchair again, smirking at his standing-tall hard dick against his stomach and deciding which way she wanted to ride him.

“Come here.” He said, now being the one impatiently waiting for her to put them out of their misery. Gladly, he didn’t have to ask twice before Fallon was figuring out the best way to get on his lap with her back to him, making sure her legs were comfortably resting on his. “Sit down.” He instructed, lining himself up at her entrance, his tip eagerly rubbing against the wetness, before being taken by surprise by Fallon swiftly slamming down on him. “Oh, god, oh… Fallon.” Liam groaned at the tight and warm feeling of her walls finally around him, taking some sweet time to just lie back, and focus on his breathing to avoid feeding into the sounds coming from Fallon, knowing that would be enough to make him cum too quickly. “Go slow.” He asked as Fallon had wasted no time in intensively rolling her hips in a steady rhythm, nailing the angle they had perfected to get the best stimulation of her g-spot really quickly.

“But…” she whined, feeling herself closer to her orgasm with each thrust. “I’m almost there.”

“I know.” He said, kissing her back and spreading his legs a little for improved support as he rested his hands on her waist to make sure Fallon paced herself. “Come here.” Knowing exactly how close she was by the way she refused to slow down, and how quickly it would be done for him right after, Liam wrapped both his arms around Fallon’s torso, pulling her body against him, until her back was resting on his chest.

“Liam…” she whispered as Liam’s mouth was close enough to reach her neck and he tightened his grip on her body, keeping her as still as he could even when he felt her nails digging into his arms. “What are you doing?” she asked, slightly frustrated with the loss in friction.

“I wanted to eat you out this morning…” he confessed in her ear, getting a loud frustrated moan from Fallon as she was too trapped to properly thrust into Liam, leaving her at the mercy of his agonizingly slow pumps.

“Why didn’t you?” she whined again, the frustration keeping on building.

“I didn’t want to disturb your sleep…” he whispered, letting his left hand go of her boob to return her wet core, giving into her distress and masterly going back circling her clit. “Do you like that?” he asked, feeling her puffed breathing against his neck.

“Let me ride you properly…” she begged.

“You didn’t answer.” Liam said, increasing the speed of his fingers and observing his answer come to life as Fallon arched her back.

“I do.” She puffed and Liam decided it was time to let her do what she wanted. As soon as Fallon felt Liam loosen the grip he had on her, she quickly adjusted her position to her previous one, making Liam hold on tightly to the side of the armchair and close his eyes. “Now. This is it.” She says, sliding up and down, going as deep and fast as she can in the unstable position, reaching her orgasm as quickly as she knew she would and relishing in the sounds of Liam groaning beneath her as her walls clenched relentlessly.

“Fal. Fal.” He said, but it was too late. She sunk herself down him, stilling her hips in a midst of moans as her orgasm rushed through her body. “Oh fuck.” Trying to fight the inevitable, and despite his shaky hands, Liam held on to her the best he could, getting up from the chair, moving her body with him and resting it on top of the ample desk. “Fuck…” he groaned, struggling to keep slamming his hips hard against her ass, the solid thrusts making the desk move forward slightly as Fallon indicated she kept on enjoying the aftermath of her orgasm by the sound of her ongoing moaning; the moaning sound only increasing when Liam’s joined hers as he felt himself coming undone inside her.

“Oh…” she panted, not moving for a while, only finally opening her eyes as she felt Liam slip out of her, taking a few seconds to try to figure out how she had ended up with her face lying against Liam’s VKI folders. “I’m not sure if I blacked out.” Fallon said, throwing the folders underneath her to the floor, along with a few other things Liam had on his desk, so she had enough space to comfortably roll her body and lie on her back on top of his home desk.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his hand reaching for her reddish-pink flustered cheeks as he hovered over her, supporting himself only on one arm and questioning if he had somehow been too harsh, even if he knew Fallon liked it when he was a little rougher with her.

“I have never been better.” She smiled at his worried expression, lifting her head slightly, capturing his mouth in hers, tangling her fingers in the back of his hair and scratching his scalp lightly. “That was a good one.” She said in one breath, still feeling a tingling electric-like sensation run through her legs.

“What do you say I give you another one?” he smirked, knowing that if he got started soon, he could easily take advantage of her most recent orgasm to get her to an even stronger one, feeling himself getting hard again by just thinking about it. “I still want to eat you out like I wanted this morning…”

“Please do.” Fallon placed both her hands-on top of Liam’s head, pushing it slowly down her body, his lips leaving a trail of kisses as he made his way to its final destination. “Oh, there.” She muttered, feeling his breathing against her wet core, the anticipation of his mouth on her making her grow wetter.

“You already made a mess here…” he said, looking down at the small pool of cum that had dripped out of her and into the hardwood floor by his desk.

“Me?” she lifted her head, impressed with his cunningness. “I believe that’s your fau—” he left her unable to finish her sentence as he gripped her still swollen clit between his lips, sucking on it until he noticed Fallon rising her hips.

“Now…” he pulled away from her. “You gotta stay still and let me work…” he joked, smiling at her little whimpering, and observing as she moved her foot to rest it above the swelling in the pants he had pulled back up but not bothered to button up again, moving it along its length. “See…” he looked down at her foot, holding it by the ankle to pull it away from his already growing erection. “You can’t keep distracting me or else I won’t be able to guarantee good results.”

“Just…” she sighed. “Go back, please.”

“I like it when you use nice words.” He smirked again, lowering his head and teasingly kissing her labia as he pushed two fingers inside her, all the blood in his body rushing south as he felt her sticky warm core around his fingers, wishing that was his dick instead. “The things you do to me…” he panted, adding his tongue to the action and using his free hand to wrap it around his already hard dick, stroking it. The movement of his left hand, making it hard for Liam to keep his focus on curling his other hand’s fingers inside Fallon, while keeping his tongue moving in the midst of his own moans.

“Liam…” she squirmed underneath him and he increased the velocity of his fingers massaging her g-spot, making him have to let go of his dick and rest his open palm against the pit of her stomach to keep her in place. “Liam…” she said again, moving her hands previously holding onto the edges of the desk to Liam’s head, a counter instinctive move as she pushed it away from her and Liam understood exactly what she wanted from her whining.

“Okay, okay…” he said, grabbing her by the waist, pulling her closer to the edge of the desk before lining himself up with her entrance and pushing his tip inside, planking over her body and thrusting deep into her in a single roll of hips. “You are so demanding.” He whispered, his mouth applying the same kind of treatment to her boobs that it had been applying on her clit.

“Harder.” With a soft moan, Fallon closed her eyes as Liam gladly obliged to her request. “Yes!” Fallon wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug that allowed her to grip onto the back of his white shirt as his thrusts became intensively stronger.

“Hold onto me.” He whispered, slapping the side of her leg so she would safely wrap her body around his, before sliding both his hands under her legs to pick her up.

“C’mon…” she whined again in frustration, muzzling against his neck as she pressed her body against him harder than before, her arms propelling themselves on Liam’s shoulders so she could keep the friction going.

“Give me a second…” he said, looking back not to trip as he sat back down on the armchair considering his movements were still very much constricted by the pants stuck in the middle of his legs. “There you go...” he sighed once he was comfortably resting against the soft fabric and Fallon picked up the rhythm that was almost driving them over the edge before.

“I was so close before you decided to stop.” Fallon muttered against his ear, along with an exasperated sigh, letting her go back to the position where she was clinging onto him before, burying her face on his neck, muffling the sounds of her moans as she kept riding him as fast as she could.

“I’m so close now.” Liam mumbled, his eyes shut close as well as he enjoyed the wave of adrenaline that rushed through his body each time that she lifted her ass, only to sink it back down again harder than before. “It’s so hot here…” he panted, taking one hand to his forehead to wipe some of the sweat away as Fallon clung harder onto his shirt, the heat of her body against him certainly not helping the situation.

“Liam.” She moaned against his neck, biting down on her lip as she felt her heart racing, a point of no return. “I’m—” she was unable to finish what she intended to say, sticking to just digging her nails on his collarbone when Liam was forced to take over the thrusts as Fallon just shook through her orgasm. An unusual reaction that always got a huge grin on Liam’s face, whenever he got it from her, knowing perfectly well that there was no way he would be able to keep his cool after feeling her shake in pleasure on top of him.

“Hm.” Liam groaned at the feeling of his balls tightening again, digging his fingers onto the sides of her waist, as he throbbed against her tightly clenching walls, making him shoot his load deep inside her just seconds after. “Oh. Fal…” he whispered between his uneven breathing, wrapping his arms protectively around her, as she had not moved at all after her shaking orgasm, the only sign of life given by her being the accelerated pounding sound of her heart beating against his chest. “Babe…” he called again, only hearing a whimper back from her. “Are you okay?” Liam pulled her body slightly back, blowing on her face softly to get a reaction from her. “Fal…” he said once more, starting to get worried.

“I’m fine.” She finally mumbled back. “That was intense.” Liam sighed of relief once she was more responsive, knowing that sometimes Fallon had weird reactions to orgasms, but still feeling nervous every time.

“What happened?” he asked, pulling some of the hair away from her face.

“I just got a little dizzy.” She sighed, still cuddled up against him and with no intention of moving. “I guess I need to eat.” She said, before raising her head back up, remembering she had barely eaten anything the entire day, and well, Liam just had given her quite the workout.

“Did you cut your hair?” he asked, turning his head to study her face, trying to figure out what was different about it, before getting a piece of her messy hair, pulling it away from her eyes and placing it behind her ear.

“I did.” She smiled, not expecting to have him notice anything different with her still very long hair, now just a couple inches shorter.

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙱𝙴𝙳𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼. - 𝙴𝙰𝚁𝙻𝚈 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝚃𝚄𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟸𝟼𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_Liam woke up to the sound of their master bathroom’s toilet flush. He turned on the light and noticed not only wasn’t Fallon by his side in bed, as well as it wasn’t even 5 am yet when he tapped on his phone’s screen and it showed the time. Worried that she wasn’t feeling well, Liam readily slipped out of bed and walked in their bathroom’s direction, stopping by the door’s frame as he watched her standing by the sink with her head down._

_“Everything okay, babe?” he asked, the tone of his voice low and soft, like he didn’t want to disturb whatever was going on._

_“I’m waiting.” Fallon whispered so low it was barely audible._

_Liam approached the bathroom counter slowly, almost like it there was something that could blow up at any time, only to find Fallon staring down at a pregnancy test._

_“What are you doing, Fal?” Liam stood behind her and looked down over her shoulder. It had been 7 days since the whole process had started, and the longer it passed, the harder it was for them to stay strong as a team. “Babe… Don’t do this.” Liam tried to reach for the plastic stick on the sink, wanting to take it away from her, avoiding the inevitable pain its result was gonna bring her._

_“No.” she said, stopping him, as she continued looking down at the test. Now that the bleeding had finally stopped, they had their follow-up appointment with Addison scheduled for later that morning. She knew it had happened. She knew it better than anyone else, yet, Liam couldn’t understand why they were both in silence staring down at a pregnancy test which the result to was obvious._

_“Fal—” he was about to say when the result showed up and there was the clear answer. “Positive.” Liam read out loud._

_“Yeah.” Both of them knew she wasn’t pregnant. There was no living embryo inside her. No potential for a new life, which gave the words on the display a whole new meaning. There was nothing positive about it. “Positive, huh?” She repeated, visibly upset._

_“Why are you doing this, Fallon?” Without giving him an answer, Fallon grabbed the plastic stick and threw it inside their master bathroom’s trash can, leaving the bathroom as quickly as she could before the tears found her vulnerable enough to be set free. Before following her back into the bedroom, Liam picked up the test from the trash and took it with him. “Fal.” He tried again._

_“I just needed to see it, okay? That’s all.” Fallon responded a little harsher than she actually meant it. She was not mad at him. She didn’t want to speak with him like that, but she was still angry. She was angry her body just wasn’t cooperating. That her body would lie to her like that. She was angry she didn’t feel good and that her hormone levels were all over the place, and most of all, she was angry she wasn’t getting the ending she wanted. “It’s not a big deal… Just…” she sighed. “Leave me alone. Please, I’m not good company right now.” Fallon said, getting back into bed and grabbing her smartphone from the nightstand, figuring it would be an easy way to distract her._

_“I’m gonna save it.” Liam said simply and turned his back to her, going out of the room only to come back instants later with a black permanent marker. “I know you are frustrated and in pain, but you are not the only one who lost this baby… and it hurts me that you think you are.” Liam sat on the edge of the bed and, placing the test on his nightstand, he wrote the date on its back, just like Fallon had done to all the other tests she had taken before. “This is part of our history.” Liam looked back at her, a pout in her face as she scrolled through her phone in bed, without ever taking her eyes off it. “We are saving it.” Liam opened the nightstand’s drawer and placed the test inside the white jewelry box where they still had all the other ones._

_“Those don’t mean anything anymore.” Her eyes still not moving from the screen, but Liam could see the water building in them. “You should just throw it all in the trash. Move on!”_

_“Whether you like it or not, this was our first pregnancy. I want to keep what I can.”_

_“The first and last.” Fallon said. Not being able to handle her emotions any longer, she got out of bed and left the room, slamming the door behind her and heading to her office downstairs where she knew she could lock herself with nothing but work and alcohol until it was time to go to her doctor’s appointment._

_Liam didn’t move from bed, knowing that he was really better off leaving her alone for a while to blow off some steam. However, he had just gotten comfortable in bed again when, a couple minutes later, he was shaken back up by the sound of the bedroom’s double doors swinging open and an enraged Fallon coming in._

_“What did you do with my bottles?” Fallon yelled in tears of frustration, as Liam just kept staring at her in silence, totally speechless at the sight, but not surprised at all, knowing that it really was a matter of time until she noticed the bottles were gone. “Where did you put them, Liam?” she repeated the question, her voice getting weaker the second time._

_“I gave them away, and you shouldn’t even waste your time on going to look for other ones because there isn’t a single bottle of alcohol in this house.” He said somberly, sitting straight against the bed’s headboard as he quietly observed her anxiously pacing around the room. “You know why I did it…”_

_“Guess what?” Fallon yelled again; her tone still clearly too loud. “I’m a grown woman that can drink whenever she wants! You had no right to get rid of my very expensive, and perfectly fine bottles just because you don’t like when I drink!” she wiped some of the tears from the corner of her eyes, trying to keep herself together, but Liam could see her hitting her breaking point within seconds. “You—” she took a deep breath as she felt her voice cracking. “You know I can buy more, don’t you?”_

_“I know you can.” Liam said, finally getting out of bed to get closer to her, hoping she would let him hug her. “I know you probably will…” he reached for her hand, and although she frowned immediately at his touch, she didn’t pull her hand away, something Liam took as a good sign. “I have no problem with you drinking, Fallon.” He whispered when he was close enough. “I just can’t, and I won’t watch you get drunk as a way to deal with your feelings. I’m sorry, but not under my watch…”_

_“I was not getting drunk. I just—”_

_“Who are you kidding, Fallon?” Liam cut her off right away, both of them knowing perfectly what her real intentions were. “You can buy all the alcohol you want, and you can even drink it!” He exclaimed. “But not like this.” He said, his eyes carefully studying her facial expressions as he wiped some of her tears away with his hands. “Not when you are sad, and you don’t know how to express your feelings…” he pulled her into a hug that she didn’t even fight. “While you don’t learn how to do that… We won’t have alcohol in this house.” He pulled slightly away from her to look her straight in the eyes. “I love you too much to watch you do that.”_

_“I just want to stop thinking…” she whined in frustration, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head on his shoulder for some much-needed comfort. “I want it to stop.”_

_“I know. I do too... I really want to stop this feeling too. Everyone says it gets better. I don’t see how but I hope they are right…” Liam kept stroking her hair, figuring that he had made the right decision when he got rid of all the alcohol a couple days prior, after Fallon did exactly what she had intended to do that morning. “Now… Do you think we can talk for a while?” Liam whispered as Fallon didn’t even dare to move in his arms._

_“Can we talk like this?” she whispered back, not wanting to let go of the comfort of his embrace._

_“Sure.” He turned his face to kiss her exposed shoulder, rubbing her back in a circular soothing motion. “Do you want to start by trying to explain what made you want to get up in the middle of the night to take that pregnancy test?”_

****

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙱𝙴𝙳𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼/𝙲𝙻𝙾𝚂𝙴𝚃 - 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝙼𝙾𝙽𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟹𝟶𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

“Oh no, mom is mad.” Liam told the dog laying on the rug by his feet, finishing tying his shoes when Fallon walked out of the bathroom looking furious in nothing but her black laced underwear. A sight Liam couldn’t deny he loved, the angry frown on her face only making it feel sexier to him. “Should I ask why?” he asked regardless, now directly addressing his wife.

“I just got my period. That’s all.” Fallon looked at the slim green dress she had laid out on top of their bed before she got in the shower, deciding that she no longer felt like wearing something that tight.

“Oh. That’s okay…”

“I really don’t understand…” She threw the dress she had picked into a pile next to Liam and went back to their closet to pick out something else.

“What, babe?” Liam chuckled as he followed her into the closet and watched as she went through it viciously, taking article of clothing after article of clothing from its hanger and throwing them all on the floor with no intention of ever putting them back. All the discarded clothes on the floor would later be somebody else’s problem.

“We have been having more sex than ever, Liam! Every position imaginable… I didn’t even know I was that flexible!” Liam couldn’t help but laugh. Their first month of trying for a baby had been a lot of fun and, although Liam really wanted Fallon to get pregnant, part of him was glad she wasn’t if that meant they still had an excuse to keep the intense rhythm of the past 4 weeks going. “All that while I’m not on birth control and nothing… I get my period on the dot,” she turned around presenting him with two pantsuit options and Liam readily pointed to the one on her right, knowing the exact amount of cleavage it showed. “But when we are enjoying our honeymoon and I forget to take my pill for a few days, I get pregnant right away? What sense does that make?”

“You know how that works, right?” Liam walked closer to her as she got dressed. “It really just takes the right timing and a bit of luck…”

“Well, we seem to be a bit unlucky when it comes to pregnancy.” Fallon didn’t bother finishing doing the buttons on her pantsuit before she moved to the shoes section of her closet, looking up and down at the wall of shelves filled with shoes of all different colors.

“It was just a first try, Fal…” Liam went up to her and placed a kiss on her cheek. “It will happen soon.”

“I just don’t understand.” She finally managed to pick a pair of black extravagant heels that matched her outfit nicely. “I feel like—"

“Fal, Fal. Relax.” Liam held her face with both his hands and repeated again softly. “It was just the first try. It didn’t work out this month but maybe it will next month. We are not in a hurry, are we?”

“I just really thought it would work right away.”

“What fun would that be? That just means we have to keep practicing.” Liam placed both hands on her hips, and swayed them, pulling her against his body and applying just the right amount of pressure against her. “It’s not like it’s a bad process. Don’t tell me you are not having fun…” he whispered on her ear before starting to cover every inch of skin on her neck with small kisses.

“I am… I guess I had different expectations.” Fallon pushed him away from her before things got too heated and they had to get undressed just after finishing putting on clothes. “I’m not complaining about all the sex. It’s just… I wanted results.” There she is talking like a true businesswoman, Liam thought. Of course. She wanted results. Fallon was used to getting stuff done and didn’t usually take losses very well, as had been proved multiple times by the tantrums she threw when things didn’t go her way during their weekly game night. “It’s just… a lot of investment and no return.”

“Be careful about what you wish for…” Liam warned playfully, teasing the waistband on her black high-waisted pants. “What if we double our investment?”

“Twins?” Her eyes widening at the possibility she hadn’t even considered. “Oh, no...” she shook her head and felt her heart race a little faster at the prospect of having to deal with everything in double. “Why are you saying that? Do they run in your family?” 

“Not that I know of… But it can always happen. That’s a possibility, Fallon.” Liam smiled at the sheer panic on her face, thinking it was funny how she had gone from being upset for not getting pregnant to being terrified at the idea of possibly getting pregnant with twins. “You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

“I mean… It would be two for the price of one!” Fallon explored the upside of it. “That would be pretty efficient!” They had recently talked about it, and they knew that they wanted to have at least 2 kids, agreeing to go up to 3 or 4 if everything went well. Both of them understood the importance of siblings. Having both grown up in crazy families, they knew that having someone else there to share the good and the bad with was something they were both extremely grateful for, and they wanted to make sure their kids had the same support system. Just in case.

“I think it would be pretty cute if we have twins…” Liam said, sniffing the perfume on her neck. “You know… maybe we would get a girl and a boy…” he started kissing her neck again, something that morning just really drawing him to her, until she pushed him away from her and returned to her fast paced rhythm while getting ready to leave the house. “We would each get our little buddies…”

“I guess that if it happened, we would have just to deal with it and it would be okay… but I would rather not.” Fallon looked through her bag to see if she had all she needed in it. “I rather do one at a time. Neither of us even knows how to change a diaper, Liam… We don’t need to double the level of difficulty.”

“I thought we were getting nannies for that.”

“Liam Ridley!” Fallon’s fierce blue eyes shot up from the large handbag and straight at him. That was also something they had talked about over the past month; how important their involvement in raising their kids was to them. They both just wanted normal. For once, they wanted to have what common people had, a normal family.

“I know, I know!” He laughed it off, going up to Fallon to pull her into his embrace, just not wanting to let go of her. “Don’t worry, I will change all the diapers.”

“I know you will…” Even if she was already late and Liam kept stalling her with his constant need for affection, Fallon couldn’t help but stop and smile at the thought of Liam taking care of their baby. “I know you will because I’m not particularly excited about it, and someone has to do it…” Fallon placed a quick peck on his lips before going back to search for the period kit she was sure that she had to have somewhere in her purse. “I’m 100% sure you’ll be an even greater dad than what I can imagine right now.”

“Then, let’s be patient…” Liam said as Fallon rescued the little pouch from the bottom of the large Michael Kors handbag and opened it to check if he had enough stuff to get her through the day. “Let’s wait to see what happens. No need to stress ourselves over this. This is supposed to be fun! Enjoy the ride!”

“Oh, I will.” Fallon winked and threw the period kit back into her handbag. “We will go for a ride later! Now, I got to go to work! See you for lunch?” She stopped in front of him for their usual goodbye kiss.

“I will be there around 1! Take something from the kitchen for breakfast, Fallon!” he shouted, right before he heard her close the double doors to their room on her way out.

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙰𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙼𝙴𝙽𝚃. 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺. - 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝙽𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃. 𝙼𝙾𝙽𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙹𝚄𝙽𝙴 𝟸𝟿𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_Liam turned his keys as carefully as he could, trying not to make too much noise as he opened the front door when he got home, thinking about how both Fallon and June could already be asleep, and wanting not to disturb them in any way. However, when he walked into the apartment’s big foyer, he heard a soft clinking sound coming from the kitchen._

_“Oh, you are still up.” Liam said, surprised to see June sitting in a high stool by the kitchen island’s counter when he walked into the dark room._

_“I was drinking some chamomile tea. Do you want some?” the old lady offered in a quiet whispered tone that Liam recognized as a sad one._

_“No, it’s okay. Thank you.” Liam sighed, going up to the fridge to get himself a glass of ice-cold water instead. “I’m too full and I had a bit too much to drink tonight already.” He explained, sitting down in a stool next to her, determined to figure out what was happening. “Is everything okay with you?”_

_“My sister is not doing that well.” June admitted, figuring out Liam knew could read her too well to even try to come up with any sort of excuse. “I was on the phone with her just now.”_

_“Is this the sister that lives in Utah?” Liam asked, trying to remember the facts about June’s family the best he could, considering it had been some years since the last time they had had regular contact with each other._

_“Exactly that one.” June ran her hand through Liam’s clean shaved beard, a gesture of affection she had towards him ever since he could remember, and that still brought him the same comfort it did when he was a child. “The doctors say there is not much they can do at the moment, and we are all feeling a little helpless.” She sighed, blowing gently on her hot tea before taking the cup to her lips._

_“Do you want to go see her?” Liam asked, holding her already wrinkled hand in his._

_“No, sweetheart.” The old lady couldn’t help but smile at his gentleness. “It’s okay. I would not leave you like that. I just got here.”_

_“June.” Liam pushed his stool closer to her, changing his tone to a more serious one. “C’mon. This is important. If you want, you just have to say it and tomorrow morning I will arrange for the jet to take you to Utah. I will help you with whatever you need to be with your sister for a while.” He said, looking at his old nanny straight in the eyes. “For as long as you want. I want you to be able to be with your family.”_

_“Liam…” the old lady could feel the tears building up in her eyes. It was an opportunity she would have never had if she had stayed working for Laura Van Kirk. An opportunity that she had not even considered before, and that she knew that could only have come from someone like her little boy._

_“You were there when my dad died. You were there my whole life, ready to be with me for everything and anything. When my parents went away, or I was hurt or woke up scared in the middle of the night. You always showed me love when I needed it the most and I know how much you can help in hard times.” He confessed, thinking about how June had unconsciously been helping him with his grief process ever since she had started working from them. “You have a way of comforting people and if you can give your family that right now, I don’t want anything to stop you. Especially not me.” He told her, noticing some tears softly escaping June’s eyes._

_“I couldn’t possibly go. Who is gonna do everything around the house?” June asked, knowing for the short time that she had been working for Fallon and Liam that there was no way the both of them could keep up with the house chores._

_“Don’t worry about that. Fallon and I are two perfectly capable adults. We’ll be okay and figure it all out.” He nodded, still not sure how he would break the news to Fallon. “When you decide to come back, we will be here to welcome you back.”_

_“Thank you, sweetheart…” June leaned forward, placing a kiss on his cheek. “You were always a gentle soul and a good boy that turned into an excellent man. I’m so proud of you.” June smiled at him, making Liam a little emotional. “Do you think Fallon will be okay with me going away?”_

_“I know she will.” Liam nodded with a smile, knowing that even if Fallon wouldn’t be thrilled about losing her housekeeper, she also knew that June was much more than that. She was family. “I’m sure she will understand. Did you have dinner with her tonight?” Liam asked, since Fallon had found a million excuses to stay home and not go to Elliott’s birthday party with him._

_“I did.” June said, taking another break to sip on her tea. “She seemed a little sad. She didn’t talk much and ate even less.” June expressed her concern about Fallon, and Liam started questioning if she had regretted her choice of staying home instead of going to the party with him. He had insisted multiple times, but eventually gave up when Fallon ranted about all the work she had to do and gave him the endless list of approaching deadlines she had coming up._

_“I will talk to her.” Liam said, kissing June’s cheek before getting up. “I’m going to bed now. You should get some rest too. I will take care of everything for your trip tomorrow morning, okay?” June nodded, watching him on his way out. “Good night.” Liam whispered, leaving the dark kitchen and walking into a long and equally unlit corridor, the only glimpse of light coming from the slightly opened door that led to their master bedroom._

_“Well, my love is still awake.” Liam said gently with a big grin on his face when he walked into their bedroom and Fallon glanced up from the computer on her lap, an unusual sight to see since Fallon never worked from bed, refusing to mix business with pleasure. “Working from bed tonight, huh?” Liam kicked his shoes into a corner of the room before furiously undoing and pulling the tie around his neck to take it off._

_“You are home early!” she said, grinning back at him as he got undressed._

_“It’s 1 am, Fallon. I’m not sure this classifies as early.” He chuckled, as she set the laptop aside in her nightstand, getting ready to have him join her in bed._

_“Well, it’s certainly early for someone who just went to a birthday party.” Fallon explained her reasoning. “I thought you would come home around 6 am and be completely drunk.”_

_“I would never.” Liam laughed, finally getting rid of his shirt and throwing it on top of a chair in the same corner he had kicked his shoes to. “June told me you barely ate anything tonight...” he said, unbuttoning his pants and pulling them down, leaving him just in his underwear in front of her._

_“Oh, I see…” Fallon’s eyes quickly travelled Liam’s body carefully, as she tried to sound annoyed that her lack of eating at dinner was subject of conversation between her husband and June. “She is telling on me already, huh? When did you talk to her? Is she still awake?”_

_“She was worried about you, Fal.” Liam whispered, and Fallon rolled her eyes at him. “I went to the kitchen for a glass of water after I got home, and she was drinking some tea.” Liam piled up some of the folders on the bench at the end of their bed so he could sit on it while he talked to her. “She will have to take some time off and we will have to fend for ourselves for a while.”_

_“Why? She literally just started working for us.” Fallon’s facial expressions changed quickly at the prospect of losing the comforts of having everything done for her at home._

_“Her sister isn’t doing too well.” Liam explained. “I told her she needed to be with her family, and I offered to help her with it.”_

_“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.” Fallon sighed, moving to the end of the bed so she could be closer to Liam. “I’m still not cleaning anything, Liam…” she whispered as she hungrily stared at his bicep._

_“Of course, babe. I will figure out something else.” He chuckled, knowing that there was really no hope there, and remembering what they had done the last time Fallon had been in an apron, and how that didn’t exactly qualify as household chores. “Not that it would hurt you, though…” he said, before leaning forward to reach for her lips. “Fallon, were you drinking?” he asked as he pulled his lips from hers, after noticing the different taste of her mouth._

_“I was.” She admitted right away, believing that she had been playing by all their rules, even she watched the smile from Liam’s face completely disappear at her confession. “But, hey, hey, it’s okay!” she switched position, scooting herself closer to him, almost transitioning from the mattress into the bench, as she could see the disappointment as he lowered his head. “I didn’t break the rule! I’m not sad! It’s okay!” Fallon rushed to defend herself._

_“Are you sure? Why were you drinking then?” Liam whispered, raising his head slightly to look at her, knowing that the only way to see if she was lying to him was if he looked her in the eyes. “We don’t even have alcohol at home, Fallon… Are you hiding bottles again? Is that why you were so surprised I got home ‘early’?” he air-quoted it, trying to stay as calm as possible, and avoiding replaying the events of the last time Fallon had gotten drunk in his head._

_“No, no, no. I swear!” she held his face between both her hands, as she proceeded to explain what had happened. “I… I ordered a bottle of wine after dinner.”_

_“The dinner you didn’t eat, Fallon?” It made him even sadder to think she had been drinking on an empty stomach, and how that could have been avoided if he had stayed home._

_“I promise I ate enough…” she placed her hand on top of his, waiting for a reaction from him._

_“Where did you get the bottle?” he asked in a whisper again, this time only trusting her voice as he continued to stare at their hands resting on the bed while he waited for her reply._

_“I told you. I ordered it. You can ask June! She saw the delivery man, and I have been pacing myself really well with it.” Fallon turned around, hanging her body from the side of the bed to reach for the glass and bottle she had resting on the floor on her side of the bed, since she had her nightstand stacked with folders and books. “See? I just drank half of it, and I have been here for a long while!” she said, showing him the bottle of red wine._

_“Okay.” Liam said somberly, taking the bottle from her hands and examining it before looking back at her. “I’m sorry. I believe you.” Liam shook his head, seeing that Fallon was doing her best at being honest with him. “You know I just want to make sure you’re okay… I don’t want you to hurt yourself, Fal…”_

_“I promise I’m being responsible.”_

_“I don’t want to feel like I have to watch you like you don’t know how to take care of yourself… but I worry…” he said, placing the bottle of wine he was holding back on the floor. “Do you understand that?” Liam spoke softly, a tenderness in his tone that only reflected the love behind his worries._

_“I do, honey, and I don’t want you to have to be worried about me every time I drink.” Fallon extended her arms, wrapping them around Liam’s neck and throwing her body over his in an overly tight hug. “Thank you…” she whispered in his ear before Liam swiftly turned the game on her and pinned her down against the mattress, planking over her body, a wide grin showing on his face when he heard her little squeal, followed by a pure laugh once she realized she was trapped under him._

_“I love you.” He mouthed, flexing his arms so his lips could crash against hers, before proceeding to attack her neck with kisses, tickling the sides of her body as much as he could, just so he could keep hearing her laugh in a loop._

_“Liam!” she squealed, struggling to control her breathing from the intense laughter. “That’s enough!” she said, pressing both her hands against his collarbone to keep him from kissing her again._

_“I don’t think it was…” Liam whispered, smiling as he looked down and noticed her flushed pink cheeks. “But I will give you a break…” he said, rolling over to take the place next to her on the mattress._

_“Did you have fun with your cousin?”_

_“I did… You should have come with me. Elliott was a little disappointed you chose work over hanging out with us...” Liam said, propping himself on his side before fixing her hair, since he had been the one responsible for messing it up. “Everyone asked about you! It was actually what I heard the most… ‘Where is Fallon? Where is Fallon? Where is that beautiful wife of yours?’” Liam said, putting on different voices to mimic all the different people that had noticed the absence of his wife._

_“I’m sorry you had to go by yourself.” Her grin was wiped out of her face as she whispered it to him, taking a deep breath before finally telling him what she had been keeping to herself all day. “I finally got my period this morning.”_

_“Fallon! You should have told me!” Liam sat up in bed, looking down at her, still laying on her back, peacefully staring back up at him as if she had told him something ordinary._

_“No way.” She shook her head, sitting back up as well. “I know you, Liam.” That was exactly the reaction she was expecting from him. “You would have made a big deal of it and cancelled the plans with your cousin. I didn’t want you to miss Elliott’s birthday party because of me. I was perfectly fine here looking at these beautiful charts, scheduling a bunch of emails and sipping on my red wine!”_

_“Is that why you were drinking?” Now it made sense. Now he knew why she had not eaten and why she was drinking and working from bed._

_“Not exactly… But you know it helps me relax and with the cramps…”_

_“How are you feeling now?” he asked, while searching for every little hint of her not feeling well in her expressions and body movements._

_“I’m fine, Liam.” She laughed, placing a kiss on his lips, before she took some time to observe the cute worried look on his face. “I don’t know if it hurts a little more than usual or if I’m just overthinking it because of the pain it was last—" she sighed, deciding not to go there. “but I took a Tylenol and it’s not as bad anymore.”_

_“Is that why you didn’t eat tonight?” he knew the answer, so he was not surprised when she just nodded her head in reply. “Fallon. You need to eat!”_

_“I really didn’t feel like it. You know my appetite is the first thing to go when I don’t feel good.”_

_“Ugh, I know, that’s why I wish I was here.” Liam was not a big partier. The only reason he had gone out that night was because of Elliott, but now, and discovering how Fallon had been feeling back at home, he completely regretted being out for the night. “June doesn’t know that kind of things. I would have noticed it.”_

_“Liam. It’s not a big deal.” Fallon said seriously, seeing he was giving it far too much importance. They had been waiting for it to happen. They knew that sooner or later, her first period after the miscarriage would happen and bring up a lot of memories and emotions attached, but so far, Fallon felt surprisingly calm and relaxed, maybe partially because of the effect of the wine she had been drinking all night. “I’m fine, Liam. I promise… and I’m glad you had fun at the party. It was boring over here anyways. I took the time to get some work done.” She told him, gesturing to the mess she had made bringing part of her office into bed with her. “I wanted to take a look at the VKI reports, but I didn’t know where you put them, and I didn’t want to go through your office. Can you get them for me?” she asked, as Liam did his best to clean the office related mess in their bedroom, piling up some folders on top of the dresser and picking up her planner and some of her writing supplies to put them away as well._

_“You want more work?” he asked, bending down to pick up the wine glass and the bottle from the floor, deciding it to put them on top of another dresser, feeling too lazy to actually take them back to the kitchen._

_“Not exactly. I have been working on Fallon Unlimited all day and I’m kind of tired of looking at it, but… I still want something to distract myself with.” She admitted, not being totally over the cramps but also trying not to pay too much attention to the stabbing feeling on her lower stomach._

_“That makes sense.” Liam said, stopping to look around the now slightly cleaner room. “Do you want me to get you anything else? Something to eat?” he said suggestively, hoping she would actually come up with an answer._

_“No. I just want you in bed with me.” She pouted, as Liam walked across the room, putting the clothes he had thrown into the corner armchair into the laundry bin._

_“You missed them. They weren’t in my office. They were here.” Liam told her, grabbing the VKI reports from the bottom shelf of his nightstand where he had left them the night before, and handing them to Fallon who started to take a look at them right away._

_“Tell me about the party.” She told him, not taking her eyes off the paper as he finally got into bed in nothing but his black boxers._

_“The party was good. You know the only reason I usually go to parties is because of you… and in this case because of Elliott.” He said, observing as her eyes attentively travelled the report’s pages. “There were a lot more people there than I had expected. Elliott told me it would be something small. I thought it would be more of a family-only thing.”_

_“Did you know people there?” she asked, putting the reports away, wanting to devote her full attention to listen to what she had missed at the party, deciding that would be entertainment enough._

_“Yeah, yeah. I sat at Elliott’s table with Mel, some of her family, my aunt Ophelia and some of my other cousins.” Liam explained. “But he had a lot of friends there. It honestly looked like a wedding!”_

_“Oh, wow. Guess Elliott knows how to party! We need to invite Elliott and Melissa over for dinner some time.” She suggested._

_“I agree.”_

_“It’s nice to finally have other couples our age we can be friends with.” It had been a little over a month since they had officially moved to New York and Elliott did seem to be as nice as Liam had told her he was, and thankfully, so was his wife, Melissa, or Mel, like everyone called her. “You know I love Sam, but I do think he feels a little left out sometimes when he hangs out with us.”_

_“I miss him.” Liam admitted._

_“Aw, honey.” Fallon smiled instantly, trying her best not to joke about their little bromance. “I’m sure he misses you too. Probably misses me more.”_

_“Maybe he can come hang out with us too… And maybe he doesn’t have to come alone. I think the reason we haven’t had a visit from him yet, is because he might be busy with his own little love story…” Liam teased._

_“You mean Ryan?” Fallon asked, bluntly, surprising Liam who thought he had exclusive entail from Sam. “Look.” Fallon pulled up a photo from her phone making Liam gasp at what she showed him. “You guys might be all buddy-buddies now but I’m still his best friend!” Fallon laughs when she realizes she still was number one. “I used to send him pictures of us like that too.” Fallon admitted, scrolling through some of the pictures in her camera roll._

_“You don’t anymore?”_

_“I do…” Fallon said, noticing Liam was discretely trying to look at what kind of other pictures she had in her camera roll. “Just not as often. He begged me to stop. He said that unless you were shirtless, our love was depressing him.” She laughed, tapping on one of the shirtless pictures of Liam she had on her phone to take a quick look at the picture taken just a few days prior, after Liam’s shower in the morning. “Guess he won’t mind it now that he is all happy. Come here.” Fallon nodded for Liam to get closer, capturing their picture when he rested his head on her large pillow, tapping a few more buttons on the screen to forward it. “Sent.” She announced, taking advantage of his proximity to kiss him. “I’m so glad you are home.”_

_“I love you.” He whispered as Fallon adjusted herself on the pillow so they could both share it comfortably, even if their faces were so close that their noses almost touched each other. “Another thing. At the party…” Liam started, in a soft whisper. “Elliott and Mel announced they are expecting...” Liam said reluctantly, staring deeply into Fallon’s blue eyes. “They are having their baby later this year.” He added, noticing a little glimmer in Fallon’s eyes._

_“That’s good.” She said in one single breath, trying to control her emotions. “Really good.”_

_“I wanted to be the one to tell you.” Liam whispered, running his hand through her back slowly. “I didn’t want it to catch you off guard.”_

_“It’s fine, Liam.” She said roughly, laying on her back to stare at the ceiling instead of his pain-filled eyes. “I will get them a present for when they come over for dinner. Do they know if it is a girl or a boy?” she asked, trying to stick to a rational train of thoughts._

_“They didn’t say. I think it might be really early on. She didn’t really have a baby bump or anything from what I could see…” Liam continued, his eyes unable to stray away from Fallon, who he could see, and feel, was struggling not to get emotional._

_“I’m sure I will come up with something to get them either way.” She said, her voice suddenly a lot weaker than before._

_“I was a bit jealous when they announced it.” Liam said, hoping it would be a good starter for Fallon to share how she was feeling._

_“I thought we were on the same page about the kids’ thing…” she turned her head to look at him once again, the frown in her face, revealing all the anger hidden underneath._

_“We are…” Liam caressed her cheek, not really wanting to see her get upset over it. “But don’t pretend that 2 months ago, we weren’t as over the moon as they are now, Fal...” They had agreed to move on, but there was a recent past, still very much present. An alternative universe where they would now be happily celebrating the fact that their baby would have a little cousin its age. “I wish that was us now.” Liam was just being honest. “I know you do too.”_

_“But that isn’t us.” Fallon was about to get up from bed when Liam wrapped his arms around her, pulling her body closer against his._

_“I know. I know. I’m sorry.” He whispered in her ear, realizing she was nowhere close to have that type of conversation. “I just wanted to share with you how I felt in that moment. I know it’s a sensitive situation. I’m sorry.”_

_“Yes.” Liam felt Fallon’s chest rise up and down a couple times as she tried to calm herself down. “I might have felt a little jealous too when you said it...” she admitted at last. “I think it’s normal.”_

_“It is.” Liam kissed the back of her neck in an attempt to soothe her. “We don’t have to be around them a lot if you don’t want… If you think that might be hurtful.”_

_“No. It’s okay.” She mumbled under her breath, trying to remind herself of the choices they had made. “We are moving on, remember?” she looked back at him, doing her best at putting on a fake smile, before unwrapping herself from Liam’s embrace to walk across the room. “A new addition to the family is always something worth celebrating, right?” she asked rhetorically, pouring herself some wine and raising her glass before chugging it down her throat._

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙺𝙸𝚃𝙲𝙷𝙴𝙽 - 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝚆𝙴𝙳𝙽𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙹𝚄𝙽𝙴 𝟷𝚂𝚃, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

“Woah, woah!” Liam was just finishing spreading some butter on his toast when Fallon walked into their kitchen, holding onto more shopping bags than she could handle by herself. “What’s all this, Fallon?” he said, rushing to take some of the bags from her as she struggled to put them on top of the large marble kitchen island.

“I went shopping for a few things.” She said, once she finally rested all the bags.

“May I know why? What’s all this?”

“I called Addison, telling her about our first unsuccessful attempt at conception, and she told me it was normal and to give it one year before checking medically if something is wrong.” Fallon explained, starting to go through the shopping bag, apparently looking for something.

“Why would something be wrong?” Liam frowned, letting go of his breakfast once again to check what was in the bags. “We know from experience that you can get pregnant…”

“Yeah, yeah, but we don’t know if the miscarriage happened because there is something wrong with me, Liam… Maybe my uterus is a hostile place. I don’t know…” Fallon said, putting the bags with the new lingerie she had bought away, so Liam wouldn’t see it before the right time. “Either way, I’m not waiting an entire year to get pregnant, Liam.”

“So, what?” he laughed, not understanding what the other options were if not waiting for it to happen. “You think you prefer IVF to sex?”

“No, but I bought a few things to help us out, and I’m working on a full plan that hopefully will help us get to our baby faster.” She said, keeping on taking everything from pill bottles and books to food and even clothes from the shopping bags and spreading them across the counter. “A little organization never hurt anyone!” she said as she ironically kept adding items to the cluttered kitchen island.

“I thought we just needed to have sex.”

“Yes, honey, and we will, but I will be asking a few extra things of you too. We both need to make some sacrifices.” Liam’s eyes widened at the word ‘sacrifices’, thinking about how Fallon was just overcomplicating something that was just natural and as old as time.

“Clarify that for me, please.”

“First, we are going on a healthy diet. I’m gonna talk to June, we are eating totally clean from now on.” That sounded reasonable to him. For the most part, Liam made very healthy food choices. If someone was gonna suffer with that one, it would be Fallon once she realized she would have to give up her morning bacon. “That includes no more alcohol for both of us.”

“Is that really necessary?” Now, that seemed a bit extreme. But again, Fallon would probably have a harder time with that than he would.

“Yes. I’m already tracking my cycle, but I got a bunch of ovulation tests. Hopefully we can figure out exactly when I’m ovulating.” Fallon explained, dumping a whole bag of ovulation and pregnancy tests on the island. “I need you to take care of your little swimmers too. With our new diet, and the regular exercise you already do, I just need you to keep them fresh and cool. You know, maybe don’t wear anything too tight…” she suggested, looking at the jeans he had on.

“Oh, so now my wardrobe choices influence our chances of conceiving…” he said, looking down at his own pants too.

“It can.” She nodded, reaching for another bag to grab a plastic container from inside it, throwing it to Liam. “Here are your prenatals.”

“Prenatals?”

“Yeah. It’s just some vitamins and supplements to keep you healthy and increase sperm quality!” Fallon said as she watched Liam carefully examining the bottle’s label. “I have some for me too!”

“Okay… Sure… I will take them.” He agreed, as the label did seem to indicate that it wasn’t anything too intrusive.

“Oh and, once I figure out my fertility window… We really have to have sex on those days. I don’t care what you have to do, you need to make time for me during those days. I will add it to our shared calendar every month.” Fallon explained.

“That shouldn’t be too hard. When have I ever not had time for sex with you?” he said, putting down the plastic bottle, walking towards Fallon and wrapping his arms around her.

“Oh, and you and your hand…” she turned her body around, feeling the hands that were previously rested on her lower stomach each take one of her ass cheeks. “That needs to stop.”

“I don’t even—”

“I know you do it and it’s okay but now…” she locked eyes with him, making sure she had all his attention, and trying not to get too distracted in her own thoughts as she revisited her memories of catching him jerking off in the shower in the morning before she had to leave in a rush. “Every little drop that comes out of you is coming inside me. Got it?”

“Yes, captain!” he said, saluting her. “Anything else I should know?”

“I also got a bunch of books!” she held the strap of one of the bags, dragging it closer to them, pulling multiple books from inside it and handing them all to Liam. “I know you like books, so… I got you some new late-night reading material!”

“Oh, these look really good, actually!” Liam said excitedly scanning through the titles of the parenting books Fallon was piling up in his arms. “I started reading this one last time!” he said, referring to the classical ‘What To Expect When You Are Expecting?’, the one book he had actually started reading before the miscarriage, when Fallon asked him to get rid of all baby related things they had in their house.

“Read up, daddy!” she said, patting his back and laughing at the large book pile in Liam’s arms.

“What is happening in this kitchen?” Both Fallon and Liam’s faces went completely pale when June walked into the kitchen coming through the large glass doors that led into the back of the house.

“Oh, June.” Liam carefully transferred the books to the counter, going up to the old lady to carry the heavy baskets filled with vegetables and fruit for her.

“Hm. June.” Fallon started when she noticed June’s eyes inspecting all the items scattered on top of the kitchen island. “Remember when we told you that we weren’t sure if we were ever going to have a baby?”

“Oh my God.” June whispered, covering her mouth in slight surprise. “Are you pregnant?”

“Not yet!” Fallon readily clarified, not wanting to deceive June or cause her to have a heart attack. “But we have decided to start trying…”

“Yeah.” Liam smiled. “Hopefully soon, June.”

“Those are such great news!” June exclaimed, pulling Liam into a really tight hug that reflected how excited she was. “Anything you need, you can count on me. Nothing would make me happier than to have a little one running around! You have no idea how much life it brings to a house!” June said, letting go of Liam, only to hug Fallon next.

“We know…” Fallon said, trying to breathe through the tight hug. “But June, this is a secret. No one can know. It’s something that stays between the three of us. Nobody else.”

“Don’t worry, sweethearts.” June caressed Fallon’s face, looking lovingly between the young couple, still over the moon at the thought of having a baby in the house soon. “My mouth is a vault.”

“Thank you, Junie. We are counting with your help!” Liam said, starting to put away some of the mess Fallon had made with her shopping spree. “We have no experience and we really want this to go smoothly and to do things right!”

“Of course.” June nodded, completely confident that Fallon and Liam would make great parents. “I raised you from the day your parents brought you home from the hospital. It will be my pleasure to help you with your own child now…”

“Fallon and I really want to do as much as we can but I’m glad we will have you around to help us out and guide us through this.”

“With anything you need!” June said, taking the carrots and cucumbers from the basket and setting them inside the sink to get some of the dirt off them before putting them in the fridge. “Oh, sweetheart. I’m really happy for you. I was getting worried you really meant it when you said you didn’t want to have kids. I got to be honest… that would make me a little sad…” June confessed and Fallon and Liam looked at each other, realizing how painful it had been to make that decision at the time, knowing deep down that they were letting go of something they both really wanted.

“Sometimes it just takes us a while to understand what we really want, right?” Liam finally said, breaking the silent and the intense stare he was maintaining with Fallon.

“That’s right.”

“That’s lovely, but now, get out of my kitchen! Let me put away the vegetables Mr. Bennett collected this morning. I’m making you a really healthy soup for dinner! Got to be especially healthy right now!” June picked up some of the bags, distributing them between Fallon and Liam so they would take it all out from the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all liked it! I know it took me an eternity to update it. Hopefully I can get the other ones out faster!


	3. afterglow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Falliam take New York! Fallon and Liam find their place working for VKI, learn how to handle the crazy Van Kirks and Fallon still finds time to learn more about Liam's childhood as they continue their baby-making journey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's FINALLY here (blame my hatred for writing smut but still make them have sex constantly)!!  
> Again so sorry... it's a little long! I have no idea how they get so long and say so little.  
> I had previously called the chapter "empire state of mind" but then I wrote the smut scene while listening to Taylor Swift's "Afterglow" and if you know me, you know my thing is naming stories after the titles of her songs.  
> This one is especially dedicated to the impatient Tumblr anon! I'm sorry it took me so long to publish this, but here it is! 
> 
> Enjoy this Van Kirk chapter with some Falliam in it 😅

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙱𝙴𝙳𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼. 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺/𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙱𝙴𝙳𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼. 𝙰𝚃𝙻𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙰. 𝙿𝙷𝙾𝙽𝙴 𝙲𝙰𝙻𝙻. - 𝙽𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃. 𝙵𝚁𝙸𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙹𝚄𝙽𝙴 𝟻𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_Liam knew he needed the training, and he was really thankful that Elliott had taken the time to help him ease into his new functions as CEO of Van Kirk Industries but, having to leave Fallon by herself in Atlanta for an entire week was killing him inside._

_When his head wasn’t buried in work, he would find himself constantly thinking about her, which always led him to a spiral of thoughts that rose his anxiety levels in ways he had never experienced before. Everything they had gone through as a couple in the past few weeks, had brought them together in a way that now made them feel more dependent on each other than ever. Going to New York by himself was just the start of the long journey of detachment they still had ahead of them._

_“I’ll be fine.” Fallon had insisted, but Liam didn’t believe her hurt voice at all, and now replayed it every single time he felt an urge to call his wife, knowing how far away he was from her and how he couldn’t just immediately rush to her if she needed him. And he knew there was a very good chance she did, just like he felt he needed her._

_When they came back home to Atlanta, after Liam officially became the new CEO for VKI, they both knew that sooner, rather than later, Liam would have to return to New York. That was just how it had to be._

_In reality, they both knew that it actually meant a lot more trips to New York, and consequently, a lot more time apart. It was nothing they couldn’t handle. It was no big deal, or so they thought until they actually felt their hearts ache and their fingers fidgeting on the phone’s screen, wondering if they should call yet again, just to hear each other’s voices, even if it was just for a few minutes._

_“Hi.” Liam said as soon as Fallon picked up the phone. “I miss you.” Liam had counted the hours until their scheduled night phone call, making sure to shower and eat before the phone rang so he could be free to just sit back, listen to her voice and relax._

_“I miss you too...” Liam smiled at the soft tone Fallon reserved mostly for him, and sat against the bed’s headboard, feeling the 10 hours of work finally get to him. It was the type of exhaustion he would only fight so he would be able to listen to her voice once more before he went to sleep._

_“I know it has only been two days but… I cannot wait to go back home.”_

_“Oh, no,” Fallon smiled involuntarily like only he could make her do with just a few words. “you really lost the New Yorker in you, huh?” she said, holding the phone between her cheek and shoulder, so she had her hands free to get in a more comfortable position in the mountain of pillows she had in bed with her to attenuate the feeling of emptiness Liam had left her with. “You lived in New York pretty much your whole life, Liam… That’s your home too.”_

_“I meant you.” Any other time, she would have rolled her eyes at him and made fun of his cheesy love declarations, but this time, she actually really needed to hear that. “I cannot wait to get back to you. I’m sorry I had to leave for so long. I really didn’t want to.” He confessed._

_“It’s okay, I get it.” Fallon knew the job and what it required better than anyone else, and she knew Liam and how much he had to work to get to where the company needed him to be. “Do you at least feel like you are learning?”_

_“I think so?” Liam knew he wouldn’t feel confident in his newly acquired business skills until he was faced with the real challenges. “I’m learning, yes. I think. At least I don’t get as distracted with Elliott as I do with you.”_

_“Good.” Fallon yawned, too tired to actually speak all the words she intended to say, but so was he. They could feel the clear exhaustion in each other’s tones along with their rather short replies. “Has your mom been around?”_

_“Yeah. She has been helping me with some of the transition stuff too. I think she feels like she finally won.” Liam closed his eyes, keeping in a yawn. “Even if I stole her spot, this is what she dreamt all her life. I think she is finally proud of me…” Hearing his sad tone completely shattered Fallon’s heart. Liam had wanted his mother’s approval all his life and apparently taking on a job he really didn’t want, was exactly what he had been missing. “She is not as mad as everyone expected her to be, which I guess is the good part…”_

_“I’m sorry, babe.” Fallon felt the physical need to hold him and comfort him, like he had done to her every night for the past couple weeks, knowing perfectly well how that could be all a person needed. “Did she say anything about our wedding?”_

_With only two days until the wedding, Fallon had a change of mind. She wanted Laura to be there. Fallon knew Liam was mad at his mom and that Laura really didn’t deserve his love, but she also knew that no matter what, Laura was still his mom and that, despite everything she had put him through, Liam loved her._

_The more she thought about it, the more Fallon didn’t want her husband to look back on their wedding day and miss having his mother there. Because she loved Liam more than she actually hated Laura, Fallon called her mother-in-law a couple of days before the big event to invite her personally. A truce she hoped Laura would take, but she didn’t. Fallon gave Laura a second opportunity, but she never showed up, leaving an empty seat at their wedding reception._

_“No.” he said simply, not really looking to go down that road. “But she did ask how you were doing… In a genuinely nice way, may I add.”_

_“I hope you didn’t tell her the truth.” She whispered. Fallon found comfort on their unspoken understanding. She loved that she didn’t have to go on and explain all that happened. He had been there for every second of it. It was their secret, and that was how Fallon still intended to keep it, a secret, from everyone but, most of all, from Laura Van Kirk._

_“Of course, sweetheart. I was brief about it...” He said, remembering how careful he was whenever he talked about Fallon with his mom. “Just like I still haven’t told her about the VKI shares I’m giving you.” Liam looked at the pile of papers he had at the end of the bed, now understanding why Fallon always had a messy desk at home._

_“We have time to surprise her with that one.”_

_“Actually… I have everything ready to do it, Fal.” Liam was trying his best to learn more about the business, and it was not as bad as he had initially anticipated, but what he was most excited about was to be able to witness Fallon’s business excellence firsthand at VKI, and hopefully have her go to New York with him more often. “I’m thinking about announcing it at the next board meeting, you know, in a professional setting… that is, if you can make it. I don’t think it makes sense to announce it without you here.”_

_“Of course, I will be there. I will just be sure to take security with me.” She chuckled nervously, picturing the room full of Van Kirks again, and feeling just as unwelcome as last time. “I think this might be the time your mother really kills me.”_

_“Don’t worry. You’ve got Gigi.” Liam said, referring to his grandmother. “She loves you and she was the one that offered you the job, Fal. The shares are just… a bonus.” He knew his mother wouldn’t take it well, but he also knew that if there was someone Laura Van Kirk wouldn’t dare to attack was her own mother. “How are you feeling?” Liam asked, shifting the mood as he craved to know how she was doing while being away from him for what was now the longest time, they had been apart in months. For a few seconds there was just silence, but Liam waited. He had learned to give her time and trust she would open up._

_“I’m good.” Liam didn’t believe for second the cracking voice, struggling to sound whole on the other end of the phone. He knew she was on the verge of tears and he couldn’t do anything about it. “I’m just a little tired. It’s been a long day.”_

_“Fal…” he whispered, a sudden desperate feeling taking over as there was nothing that he could do to comfort her. “Babe… Talk to me, please…” He begged as he just heard her soft sniffles on the other end of the line._

_“I’m okay.” Her voice regained some strength as she wiped away the tears Liam couldn’t see running down her cheek. She felt stupid. She had lived most of her life without him and now, there she was crying about being away from him for a week. She blamed the freaking hormones. “Are you?” she asked back, trying to flip it on him and give her some time to pull herself together as he answered._

_“I’m not.” He admitted. She should have known he would be honest with her. What was she supposed to say now? “I… I had an especially hard time this morning. I cried a lot. My brain just kept going back to that time between the news and when we lo—” he sighed, not being able to say it out loud. “Those days.” Again, she understood just what he meant. “Then, I was worried about you all day...”_

_“Liam…” Fallon wiped some more tears from her cheeks, thinking how she wished she didn’t forget so often how hard all that happened had also been for Liam. It was so easy to take his comfort, that sometimes she just forgot to even consider if that was enough for him. “I don’t want you to worry about me, Liam. I’ll be fine. I just want you to be fine too.”_

_“You know I cannot simply not worry. This morning… I missed you… and…” he choked on his words, trying to keep himself from getting too emotional. “I needed to talk to someone,” he explained, remembering how much he wanted to call her despite knowing she would be in meetings all morning, “So I went to see my dad at the cemetery, and I talked to him. I told him about the baby.”_

_“Did it help?” she asked shyly, knowing talking about his father was a sensitive topic._

_“It did. I asked him to keep an eye on our angel baby.” He sighed, fighting back the tears again. “You know that I’m not particularly convinced about what happens in the afterlife, but… I want to believe they are together, and… I felt good talking to them. I needed to have that talk. I didn’t realize how mad I was until I let it all out. I told him things I have kept to myself since he died, and… I think I have found some peace about it. I was mad at him and at my mom for the whole paternity thing, and then, what happened with our baby… I was just mad at the world in general... I still am, but it helped a little.”_

_“I’m glad it made you feel better, honey.” She said, sincerely. “I’m sorry I haven’t been there for you like you have been for me.” Liam was about to cut in when Fallon continued. “You have outdone yourself… You have been more patient with me than I could ever imagine someone to be.” She said in a midst of tears that she didn’t even bother to hide anymore. “After the stunt I pulled at your party last week and how moody I have been… You didn’t lose your patience with me once… And I feel so bad that I have not even asked what you need from me…”_

_“Fal, babe, listen.” He called, just hearing a mess of muffled sniffles on the other hand. “I just need you to take care of yourself. That’s all I want from you right now. I will do the same. I just need you to pull through and not push me away.” He said, anxiously waiting until he felt her regain control of her breathing again. “I want you to focus on healing. You know I just want to be able to talk things through with you. That’s what helps me… And that’s why I think you should talk to someone too, Fallon.”_

_“I talk to you. That’s all I need.” She said, firmly._

_“I know everyone has different ways of dealing with trauma. We have experienced that over the past few weeks, and you know I love you and I will always listen to you, but I still think that talking to someone who was not there but can relate, like Alexis or Cristal…” he suggested. “It might help you heal.”_

_“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Fallon shook her head, looking around the dim-lit room, her eyes searching for all that wasn’t there._

_“Why not?”_

_“One. I’m pretty sure my mother would offer me a drink right away. That’s how she deals with her pain. Where do you think I get it from?” Fallon asked, looking right at the corner of their room where not long ago they had a bar cart, filled with expensive bottles and all the appropriate glasses to go with their favorite drinks._

_“Have you felt like you need to drink lately?”_

_“Of course, I have.” She admitted openly, thinking about how she wished she could pour herself a glass of the strongest vodka she previously had so easily within her reach on their bedroom. “I wish I was drinking right now.”_

_“Tell me why.” He said calmly, trying not to freak out about all the trouble she could get into while he was away._

_“I’m here all alone, feeling not my best… and imagining you there in New York surrounded by all those vipers.” She sighed. “Your mom. Your exes…” she closed her eyes as she enumerated. “All the cute girls jogging in Central Park with you in the morning…”_

_“You know you have nothing to worry about, don’t you?” he asked, only hearing a small chuckle on the other side. “I only have eyes for you. You have never been insecure about us, Fal. Don’t start now… I promise you there is no one I love more in this world.”_

_“I know…” she did, but in her weakest moments, when she realized how lucky she was, she thought it was legitimate to feel afraid of losing something so perfect. “My brain is just getting too creative. Especially at night. I can’t help it but—”_

_“But…” he interfered, trying to spin the continuation of what she was saying into a positive._

_“But… I will try to remember how much you love me, and… Although I struggle sometimes, I will not drink anything when I’m sad.”_

_“I’m so proud of you, Fallon.” He said honestly. “I wish I was there with you to help you at night. Not let your mind wonder to places it should never be at. But even with me not being there, I want you to call me whenever you feel alone. No matter what time of the day it is or how busy you think I am.” He said, seriously, not wanting to repeat past mistakes. “I will always make time for you. No matter what.”_

_“I love you.” She took a deep breath._

_“I will stay up for a while, so if you want to stay on the phone until you fall asleep like we did yesterday… We can do that again.” he suggested, remembering how much peace he had felt the day before when he ended their call after hearing her soft breathing on the phone as she slept._

_“Until **you** fall asleep, you mean…” Fallon said, getting comfortable in bed and setting the phone on the pillow next to her, before resting her head and closing her eyes as she hoped his voice would gently put her to sleep._

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙱𝙴𝙳𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼. 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺. - 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝚃𝙷𝚄𝚁𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙹𝚄𝙻𝚈 𝟽𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

There was that sweet heat. The stickiness of their sweat mixing as they moved together, the musky smell of his cologne mixing with the subtle traces of her rose water scent, the pressure of his grip on her waist, contrasting with the weight of her body on top of him and the tickling sensation of her soft breathing against his neck.

There was the flush color of their skin, redder thanks to the blood furiously rushing through their bodies, being nicely complemented by the irregular sound of the moans they shared, and that only kept echoing louder and louder in her ears. Fallon knew that kind of pleasure all too well and it was real. It was as real as it could get.

Or so she thought, until she felt the touch stop and the sounds dissipating, her frustration grow, and her surroundings disappear into a motionless pitch-black scenario. Damn. Just when her dream was getting good.

“No…” she groaned as she regained consciousness, opening her eyes to realize Liam was peacefully asleep next to her, totally unaware of what she had been experiencing, on what she knew now, was on her own.

Feeling a little lightheaded, Fallon blindly threw her hand on the nightstand, reaching for her phone and tapping on the screen to check the time. Squinting her eyes at the screen’s bright light, Fallon took a quick look at the overwhelming number of notifications she had received overnight. Between the emails, the texts and the meetings reminders she had set for herself, there was a very important notification from her cycle tracking app reminding her of the beginning of her fertile window.

It was almost funny how horny she was even with the amount of sex they had been having lately. One thing she knew: her sex dream was no indication of lack of sex. If anything, Fallon would say it was an unconscious manifestation of too much sex, which turned out to actually be a thing. She was horny, but she was also tired, and the two didn’t go well together.

Carefully, not to wake him up, Fallon peeked inside the sheets to see that Liam was still fully naked from their marathon the night before, which she realized now, might have been the inspiration behind her very wet, but equally frustrating, dream.

“Hm.” She groaned at the sight of the hard-on he was rocking, letting her left-hand slip inside her underwear only to find the aftermath of her nightly fantasy; the simple touch of the tip of her fingers taking her right back to where it had stopped.

Yes, it was time for her to get up but there was no other option now. She had to take her dream to completion.

Quickly rolling on her stomach, Fallon piled her pillows underneath her the best she could to try to recreate her position on the dream, raising her hips as her fingers slowly played with her clit.

It didn’t take her long to start feeling the growing heat again, along with the need to speed up her fingers’ work, the overwhelming sensation of her orgasm building by the second, making her breath uneven and a few moans escape her lips as she pleasured herself. She opened her eyes for a few seconds, glancing at the clock on the corner of the nightstand, and regretting immediately how early she had scheduled her meetings that morning.

“Ugh.” She breathed out in frustration, turning her head so she was facing Liam instead. Through the little light in their room, Fallon could see his body comfortably sprawled across the mattress, taking more than his inherently assigned half of the king-sized bed; his mouth slightly open as his chest rose up and down in a slow rhythm; the sound of her moans not having any effect on him as he was in a profound state of sleep, probably still too tired from their previous night’s endeavors.

She wanted to keep looking at him, but she was so close that she could barely keep her eyes open. There simply was no going back for her now. She spread her legs a little wider as her fingers moved faster than before, the sweet tingling sensation on the pit of her stomach intensifying alongside her cardiac rhythm and the heat taking over her whole body, making her crash against the mattress as the high adrenaline ran through her body, hitting every single one of her nerve extremities.

She felt weak and tired, her low blood sugar finally revealing itself after her most recent orgasm combined with the workout that had been their marathon the night before. “Fuck.” She muttered to herself, feeling even more lightheaded and breathless than before. Even if she wanted, Fallon really couldn’t move her sore muscles. Admitting defeat, she stretched her body, sighing before closing her eyes and taking some deep breaths to help reestablish her normal heartbeat count.

Finally removing her hand from between her legs, Fallon sat up in bed aware that her mission was still not over. Yes, she had gotten her orgasm, a pretty good one, one she was pretty satisfied with, and time was starting to run short before she really had to get ready for her morning meetings, but, according to her calendar, it was still one of her fertile days and there was no way she was going into that meeting before getting what she wanted from Liam.

Deciding not to waste another minute and get to work, Fallon scooted herself closer to him, adjusting the covers over their bodies as she cuddled up against his chest and her still warm and sticky hand dived inside the sheets, wrapping itself around his morning wood, stroking it as she hoped the stimulus would be enough to bring him back to reality gently, not meaning to wake him up abruptly.

Keeping her blue orbits on him, Fallon watched his every little move carefully as Liam started to stir up at the feeling of her firm grip around him as her hand moved up and down, in slow and lengthy strokes.

“Good morning, honey…” she whispered, watching as he struggled to open his eyes but kept a very amused smirk on his face, realizing exactly what was happening. “I thought I would help you out if that’s okay…”

“Hmm…” he moaned, taking both his hands to his face to rub the sleep off his eyes. “Good morning…” he whispered, pushing her hair away from her face while looking for his good morning kiss.

“I hope you had a nice night of sleep…” she said once their lips broke apart, speeding up her strokes and causing him to spread his legs wider and swirl his hips at the pleasurable discomfort.

“I slept really well, but I’m having a way better start to my day, that’s for sure…” he smiled, placing a kiss on her forehead before she played one of her tricks, squeezing him as her index finger rubbed his tip, what seemed to be enough to make his eyes shut close again and send his head back into his pillow as he let out a loud groan. “Damn. Easy. I just woke up.” He said, pulling the covers off them so he could put an image to the feeling between his legs.

“I barely did anything.” She whispered, sitting up on the bed as she watched him slowly breathe out some air, his eyes following her hands’ expert motions. “You were already hard…” She looked down as her manicured fingers let go of his erection and teasingly ran through the insides of his muscular thighs.

Already anticipating her next move, Fallon shifted positions, setting herself on her knees between his legs. “How about…” she whispered, lowering her head towards his center, leaving Liam impatiently waiting for her lips to meet his swollen tip. “Sounds like a good plan?” she asked, gripping tightly at the base of his standing-tall cock.

“A great plan, actually.” He moaned, throwing his head against the pillow once again as he finally felt the warm sensation of her mouth around him. Fallon knew there was no faster way to get him exactly where she wanted. By the way he gripped onto the sheets, and the visible control it took him not to thrust into her face, she knew that it wouldn’t take long to take him over the edge.

“When you are close…” she started, following the loud pop of her lips setting him free. “Tell me, okay?” He just nodded frantically, ready to beg her to continue what she was doing as he watched as she teasingly lowered her head again, her mouth opening and going back to where it was, in what seemed like to Liam, slow-motion. “Today is all about you, honey… If you want to cum, you do, okay?”

“I’m already so close…” he exhaled; not even imagining how he would be able to control himself after he felt the tip of his cock hitting the back of her throat once again.

“Okay, hun…” she said, smirking as she let go of him, seeing the redness of his hot skin and traces of sweat starting to show up all over his body. She was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to last more than 2 minutes under her control.

Climbing onto his lap, and lining herself with him, Fallon let herself sink down masterly in one swift movement, making him gasp at the tightness around him. “Relax, honey…” she told him, taking a quick glance at the bedside table clock before setting both her hands on his chest as she moved her hips in a steady rhythm that made Liam dig his fingers into the sides of her waist.

“What do you think you are doing?” he asked, breathless as one of Fallon’s hands reached for his balls, giving them a light squeeze that was making it much harder for him to keep his cool.

“You don’t like it?” she fake-pouted, knowing perfectly well how much he needed to cum, just like she knew his balls were one of the quickest routes to make him do so. “It’s okay, honey… You can let go. I know you need to.” She said teasingly, but Liam was not about to play her little game.

Figuring out what she was trying to do, Liam pulled his torso up, sitting up in the bed just enough to wrap his arms around her, in a forceful hug before he flipped their positions, trapping Fallon between his body and the mattress.

“We just got started, sweetheart.” He laughed, adjusting himself to enter her again, and intertwining his fingers with hers before pushing their hands against the sheets, reducing the chances of Fallon touching him like that again. “You are not even close, and you know... I never cum before you do.” He whispered as he hovered over her, the tip of his nose touching hers with a simple nudge.

“I told you, it’s okay.” She insisted, motionless beneath him as he slowly thrusted into her. That was gonna be a problem. She didn’t have time for hanky panky. Yes, it felt nice, and any other day, she would gladly take another orgasm, but now, besides being terribly tired, she was already running late and, like he had said, she was not even close. “You can cum inside me… C’mon…” she insisted again, now realizing that maybe her plan would be harder to take to completion than she had initially anticipated it to be.

“You know we could be here all morning, right?” he said, fully confident that he could handle another long sex marathon like the one they had the night before.

“No, we can’t.” she snapped, rolling her eyes in annoyance. The more she thought about how tired she was, the more her frustration grew, and she just wanted it to be over with soon. “C’mon, Liam, I still have to get ready…”

“Do you not want to have sex?” he asked, halting right away at her constant insistence and, now getting annoyed himself at Fallon’s lack of interest in what they were doing.

“I do, honey.” Fallon said, pulling her back up from the mattress, her hands going straight for his face as she guided him into a passionate kiss. “You know I love to be this close to you…” The last thing she wanted was for him to be turned off right now after her already expensive investment. Her insistence wasn’t going to work, she realized. The situation required a change of plans.

“Doesn’t look like it…” he whispered, his face just a few inches away from hers as Fallon kept her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, almost hanging from him as they talked.

“I’m just really tired from last night.” She whispered back before letting go of his neck and her body crashed against the white sheets in a dramatic, but somehow erotic way. “You gave me quite the workout and… I told you, babe. Today is all about you…” she said, rolling her hips against him, trying to lure him back into action. “I’m fine. I just need...” she tried to come up with something that didn’t seem too pushy. “a quick orgasm before breakfast, and I’m really hungry.”

“Okay.” He said before picking up the pace again. “I will bring you breakfast after we are done. Just…” he sighed. “You could at least show some interest... If I wanted to have sex with a sex doll, I would have gotten one, Fallon.”

“You know those slow thrusts won’t get you anywhere, don’t you?” Fallon said sassily, bringing her hips up to meet his thrusts, fighting how mellow and gentle he was with her that morning.

“Are you sure?” he asked, followed by a strong deep thrust that Fallon had to admit had a surprising effect on her. Going off her impulsive moan, Fallon realized the situation revealed itself as the perfect moment to put her plan B into practice.

“Okay…” she moaned again as he repeated the gesture. “But…” she breathed out, closing her eyes for a few seconds as she adjusted to his new tempo. “Make it quick. Okay?”

“Now we are talking…” Liam murmured, hungrily kissing Fallon’s neck as he incremented the pace of his hips significantly, getting incredibly fast from her, all the animalistic sounds, he desired so much to hear.

“Liam…” Damn. She had to admit it felt good, but she had to focus. Turning up the sound of her moans, Fallon tried to remember all the tiny steps essential to her performance. First, she arched her back on the mattress, squirmed under his touch, tightened her grip on the sheets as she moaned his name one more time. “Li—”

“Yes, sweetheart…” he breathed out, panting as he watched her eyes shut close and her boobs bounce at each thrust. And then he noticed something was off by the way she clenched around him. It somehow felt different. Keeping his eyes on her, Liam rocked his hips in a constant motion, as he tried to figure out what was it that was throwing him off as Fallon returned from her high.

“Damn.” She said, opening her eyes and meeting his right above. Liam’s gaze at her somehow reflecting how mesmerized he was by her. “That was great…” she continued, letting out a deep sigh as Liam slowed down his thrusts.

Liam looked her directly in the eyes, trying to connect the dots. It had not just been the odd way she had clenched around him; her face was different too. There was something missing there; something was definitely off, he thought, and knowing it all too well by experience, it had nothing to do with the fact that she was tired.

“Did you just—” he gasped, incredulous as he realized what had just happened. Taking her over the edge was a process that Liam knew better than Fallon herself, and not even her amazing acting skills could fool him. “I cannot fucking believe.” He muttered to himself, a sudden anger rising within him. Deciding to test something, Liam rolled his hips eagerly one more time to study her reaction. Yup, no clenching or remaining over sensitivity after what Fallon had just made seem like a very strong orgasm. It was pretty much confirmed, he thought.

“You still haven’t… How is that possible?” Fallon said, noticing how he had slowed himself down but was still inside her, grinding as he groaned painfully each time he had to keep himself from cumming.

“I told you, we could be here all morning, sweetheart...” he smirked along with a fake smile, his anger building as her replies only confirmed what he suspected. No, that he knew. She had faked it. Over the years, he had given her more orgasms than he could count, and he knew how it felt. He would admit one thing: that was one hell of a good performance. She would have convinced him had she not missed a few details.

One. Her first instinct was to always hold onto him, and not to the bedsheets. That was when Fallon was her clingiest, and when they shared some of their most intimate moments. He couldn’t believe she had forgot about that. Certainly, a rookie mistake.

Two. Yes, she moaned, and groaned, and even whimpered and whined, but it was never _that_ exaggerated, or quick. He had his ways and tricks to get her there really fast, and he hadn’t used any of them.

Three. Her walls contracting on him. That had been by far the most noticeable to Liam. No matter how small or subtle her orgasm was, Liam would always feel the same unvoluntary pattern of clenching around him. Timed, regular and more familiar than he could even begin to describe. It was one of those things Liam wasn’t sure she could fake. Her expert Kegels were good, but they didn’t even compare to the real deal.

Four. The afterglow. That’s when he thought she was her most beautiful. Of course, he would notice it. Her soft peach glow was missing, just like the reddish-pink flustered cheeks that Liam thought gave her an especially hot look as she struggled to ease herself back to her regular breathing pattern.

Last but not least, it was the quickness she was just over it. Timing really was everything, and something that had gone over Fallon’s head as she executed her performance. Somehow, her sufficiently controlled breathing just didn’t match the loudness of her previous moans. The fast build up, had taken her to an extreme high, followed by a fall that Liam just considered unrealistic.

“C’mon, Liam… It’s not the right time to be playing your stamina games.” She groaned, upset that her second plan had also not worked. He had no excuse now. “Just fucking cum already. I need to go.” She said, tapping him gently on the shoulder.

“Aw.” He said ironically. “You wouldn’t leave your husband here without its morning orgasm, would you?” he asked in a fake sweet tone that hid his anger. He still couldn’t believe she had actually done that to him. If he wasn’t so close himself, he would have just gotten up and left.

“Never, honey.” She smiled. “But this is supposed to be a quickie, Liam. This isn’t a— a marathon.” She tripped on her words as she felt Liam’s tight grip on her legs, pulling them further apart and raising her hips from the mattress, not wasting a single second before thrusting roughly into her at an angle he knew she couldn’t resist. One of his little tricks.

“You know what?” he said cockily, watching the sudden change in expressions on Fallon’s face. The natural O-shape forming on her lips and her eyes shutting close as a frown appeared. She was falling for her own poison. “You’re right. This is supposed to be quick.” He said, totally intending to get her just close enough so he could cum before just leaving her there, untouched and begging for more.

“Oh, fuck.” She groaned, the unintentional build-up of going through the execution of her previous plans, mixed with the angle that allowed her to feel him against her g-spot with every thrust, made waves of heat rush through Fallon’s body, as she felt all the remaining energy that she had left, pour out of her.

“You know you really don’t deserve it…” he leaned over slightly to whisper in her ear. However, he wasn’t even sure Fallon would be able to process what he had just told her as he watched her pant vigorously through her orgasm. Now, accompanied by the real clenching Liam knew so well. “But I will give it to you anyways.” He said, before finally letting go. It felt so good that, for a split second, Liam even forgot about what she had just done, deciding to focus solely on enjoying the release that he had been desperate to have.

“Just—Right there.” She panted, between breaths as she squirmed under him, feeling the oversensitive of her post-orgasm; her moans easing just as his groans grew louder and he let go of her legs, planking over her as he stilled his hips with one last deep thrust. “Oh…” she gasped for air, feeling the last moments of Liam pulsating inside her before pulling out and away from her, breaking their usual tradition of cuddling after sex, or in quick situations like that, share a proper celebratory kiss.

“Now… that was a real one.” He whispered to himself, sitting down on the mattress for a few seconds to take a moment to process his feelings and return to his normal breathing rhythm. “You happy now?” he asked roughly, looking between her legs, watching some of the white liquid spill out of her as Fallon just stayed on her back with her eyes closed, feeling too weak to even get up.

“What do you mean?” she asked, taking one hand to her temple and perking right up to see Liam checking something on his phone; his expressions matching the disappointment in his tone.

“I’m gonna head to the shower.” He said, getting the confirmation he needed from their shared calendar. “I hope that’s not the one.” He told her harshly.

“What did you say?” she countered immediately, sitting up in bed despite her dizziness, not wanting to believe what she had just heard.

“I said I hope that’s not the one.” He turned around, repeating what he had said in a clearer, and calmer, tone.

“Why would you ever say something like that?” she frowned, not understanding why he was being so cold towards her, especially right after the moment they had just shared.

“That was awful!” he yelled, grabbing the boxers on the floor and putting them on. “We are never having sex like that again!”

“What are you talking about?” she asked, confused as to what he meant, only making Liam madder, his anger fevering inside him as she played innocent. “That was great!”

“I know exactly what you wanted from it.” He said, now 100% sure of her intentions after seeing the beginning of her fertile window marked down on their shared calendar. “You got it. I hope you are happy.”

“My fertility window just started… Liam, you know we are trying.” She said, not understanding why he was so upset about it.

“What I know is that you just faked that first orgasm!” he yelled again, introducing a pause in their conversation as Fallon was left speechless by his accusation.

“Liam…” she sighed, playing with the wedding ring on her hand. She never thought she would be caught. The last thing she wanted was to make him think she had to fake it. She really didn’t. She never had.

“Don’t even deny it, Fallon.” He continued, just as furious as Fallon didn’t even dare to look at him. “I have been having sex with you for years! Did you not think I would notice? Was it that bad that you had to fake it?” he kept rambling, getting all his anger out in a confrontation he never expected to have, least of all, with his wife.

“No, no, honey! It was great!” she assured him, sitting up straighter to make eye contact as she said it, so he could be sure she was telling him the truth. “It really was good, I was just in kind of a hurry… and I had already had an orgasm, and I was exhausted…” she spit out at an impressive speed. “I _am_ exhausted.” She sighed, resting her body against some pillows.

“No.” he said firmly, not giving in at the sight of her pleading eyes. “You were only focused on getting what you wanted!” he said, raising his voice. 

“C’mon, Liam! It’s just sex!” she shouted back at him.

“Exactly! That’s all it is to you now...” He said, shaking his head while looking at their bedroom floor, not wanting to believe how they had gone from the beautiful scenario of their romantic night to where they were standing now.

“Did you ever fake it before?” he asked in a hushed tone, afraid of what he could find out next.

“No.” she replied right away with no hesitation. “I swear, Liam, it was the first, and last time…” she promised, scooting herself to the edge of the bed to be closer to him. “It really just was a matter of time… I thought that if you thought I was done; you would be too. I’m sorry, I will never do it again.”

“This is not some medical procedure, Fallon!” he yelled, still hurt. “You know how much sex with you means to me…”

“I know… But you made me feel amazing, honey… You always do…” she got up, feeling a little shaky on her legs as the low blood sugar levels threatened to take her out before she could get to Liam. “I’m sorry I was just too focused on all the wrong things.”

“The least you could do is let me enjoy sex with my wife!” Liam said, backing away from her. “Next time you pull one of those…” he said, putting on his most serious tone. “I might need to take a long cold shower, but you are not getting anything from me! Remember that!” he said, turning his back to her before heading into their large master bathroom. “Ah,” he started, stopping as he remembered something else he needed to say to her. “Go have breakfast and don’t wait for me.” He told her, looking at her naked figure on the bed. “And tonight…” he paused. “Don’t even think about it… You already got your baby lottery ticket this morning.”

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙰𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙼𝙴𝙽𝚃. 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺. - 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝙵𝚁𝙸𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟸𝟿𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_They were going to be late, and Fallon hated to be late. As she finished putting on one of her favorite pair of earrings, Fallon looked back at the messy king size bed with twisted white sheets falling to the floor, spotting the tie that he had picked for the special occasion by one of his pillows. Grabbing it, Fallon ran to the bathroom, determined to make sure they would make it in time to, what certainly would be, one of the most important meetings of Liam’s career as a future businessman._

_“C’mon, Liam. We are gonna be late!” Fallon told him, extending her arm while trying to get him to take the dark blue tie from her hand._

_“How is my beard looking?” He put the aftershave bottle back on the bathroom counter and faced her instead of the mirror. “Is it approved by wifey?” As soon as Liam turned his body towards her, Fallon wasted no time in wrapping the tie around his neck, rather violently. “Woah! Easy there, cowgirl.”_

_“Your beard is looking great, but we are gonna be late if you don’t pick up the pace!” she said, adjusting his tie carefully and making sure the knot looked perfect._

_“I hate ties.” Liam groaned and Fallon tried to loosen it a bit, not to strangle him._

_“But it looks so good on you, babe.” Fallon placed a quick kiss on his cheek and slapped his ass before leaving the bathroom in search of her high heels. “C’mon, let’s get going! This is not a good look for us! Especially on your first day!”_

_“Fallon, I’ve told you.” He followed her out of the bathroom and watched as she put on her black Louboutins. “We will be late, and it will still be early. I swear we could be sleeping right now!” Liam went through his suitcase, looking for one of the two watches he had packed for his official reunion with his family, deciding on the one his father had passed down to him. “It’s 8 am.” He said as he put the inherited brown watch on his wrist. “I don’t know why they schedule these family meetings this early in the morning when they know my mother will never show up before 9:30.” He shook his head, knowing perfectly the crazy wait times Laura always put them through. “And that is if we are lucky. She could only be there at 10!”_

_“Well, I don’t care. We are not gonna be late.” Fallon got up from the bench at the foot of their bed and grabbed the light coat she had bought just the night before after they arrived at the big city and she realized she had not brought anything to wear over her strapless dress. “Your mom can be late all she wants, hell, she can even do us the favor of not showing up, but you and I will be there on time!”_

_Not wanting to add to Fallon’s clear stress, Liam just put on his suit’s jacket and followed her down their apartment’s staircase and in direction to the front door, making sure he had all he needed with him along the way. “Phone, check.” He started, careful to where he placed his feet as he went down the stairs. “Special pen, check. Keys…” he looked around, thinking of where he could have put the keys. Fallon halted on her way to the door in the absence of a “check” after the word ‘keys’. “Have you seen my keys?” Liam asked as they both looked around the big apartment, not really knowing where to start looking._

_“I think I know where they are!” Fallon yelled, remembering seeing his keys on top of a glass table in the living room the night before. She ran to the spacious room to grab them, only to be left stuck staring at one of the framed pictures she hadn’t noticed before on the identical glass table at the other end of the couch._

_“Fal?” Liam called as the clicking sound of her heels against the tiled floor went away and the house was completely silent. “Is everything okay?” he asked as he made his way into the living room and noticed she had stopped to look at something. “Is everything okay?” he repeated, and Fallon finally snapped out of her thoughts._

_“Is that…?” Once Liam got closer, he realized exactly what Fallon was looking at. It was the picture-perfect family portrait featuring a young Laura Van Kirk and John Lowden with a beautiful and angelic-looking baby in John’s arms. “Is that your parents and you?” They made a gorgeous family, Fallon thought. She had never realized how naturally beautiful her mother-in-law was before she saw her younger figure in that tight-fitting black dress, her hair done and with the biggest, and genuinely happy, smile on her face. It actually took Fallon’s brain some time to process that the woman in the picture was in fact the same one she pretty much considered the devil in person._

_“That’s my mother, my father and Lucy, actually.” Liam corrected her. “I got all of Lucy’s baby pictures since my mom says she has no daughter and Lucy doesn’t want any picture of my mom even around her. She says it’s bad energy.” Liam explained, but Fallon was too into the picture to actually listen to him._

_His father. Liam had shown her a few pictures of John before, but Fallon was still surprised by how much, particularly in that one picture, Liam looked like him._

_“Lucy and I looked like twins as babies, it’s hard to tell who is who sometimes.” Liam continued rambling but Fallon had stopped listening as her eyes kept travelling through the picture, from Laura, to John, and to the baby that looked exactly like the one she had been dreaming about for the past weeks since Addison gave them their miscarriage news._

_“Hmm… It’s a beautiful picture.” It was all Fallon managed to say, as she shoved the keys she was holding into Liam’s hands._

_“We have a lot more stored somewhere.” Liam said, putting one of his hands on her waist and turning her to him before he kissed her. “I can look for it and we can go through them together later, if you want…”_

_“Yeah… No.” she shook her head, trying to forget about the family in the picture. The family that once seem to have everything. “Now. We have to go! C’mon!” she exclaimed, taking his hand and guiding him to the front door. “Is Albert driving us?” she asked as she opened the large black door, taking the house keys from him to put them away in her purse._

_“Unless you want another driver, he is.” Liam said, checking her outfit as she walked out in front of him._

_“It’s okay. Please, let’s just play some music, or I don’t know… Something.” Fallon sighed as she pressed the elevator button and they waited. “I don’t feel like talking to people and he always asks a lot of questions.” She looked over the shoulder at Liam standing right behind her; her eyes telling him all he needed to know._

_“You don’t need to be nervous.” He whispered, leaning forward slightly to softly kiss the back of her neck; the touch of his lips and the tickling feeling of his breathing against her skin sending a shiver down Fallon’s spine._

_“Nervous? Me?” she looked back at him again, rolling her eyes. “Please, Liam…”_

_“It’s okay.” He smiled, seeing right through her fidgety behavior, and taking her hand right as the elevator’s doors opened to walk in together._

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙰𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙼𝙴𝙽𝚃. 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺. - 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝙰𝙵𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙽𝙾𝙾𝙽. 𝚃𝙷𝚄𝚁𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙹𝚄𝙻𝚈 𝟽𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

June was in the kitchen preparing dinner when Fallon walked out of their master bedroom and into the apartment’s large corridor, heading for the staircase that she needed to go down to join June downstairs, when she stopped herself to look at all the closed doors.

The luxurious apartment was definitely more than big enough for the two of them and June, leaving a few rooms empty. Now that she thought about it, Fallon could count in one hand, the mere few times she had walked into those rooms since they started going to New York periodically 2 years ago.

However, with them trying for a baby now, one of those rooms could eventually turn into a nursery. Fallon looked back to think which of the rooms could have the potential to turn into their future’s baby safe space. She walked to one of the doors closest to their master bedroom, opening it to a guest room decorated in a very minimalistic way. “Oh… I could work with this.” Fallon whispered to herself as her eyes scanned the ample room. “It has a nice view.” She said, walking closer to the large glass window to appreciate the comforting colors entering the room at sunset, before exploring the second most important space in what would be her baby’s room, the closet. A place Fallon couldn’t wait to have an excuse to fill with the most fashionable tiny clothes.

“Oh.” She uttered, being caught by surprise as the closet actually had stuff in it. “Mr. Ridley has some explaining to do.” She mumbled while going through some of the women’s clothes hung in there. “Ugh. Really?” Fallon picked up the black leather heels from the floor to examine them. “I would never.”

Quickly, the room seemed to be losing all its future nursery potential. Looking through the lingerie drawers, Fallon started thinking how she could get some professional spiritual healer there to sage the room and get rid of the heavy energy of whoever wore those slutty heels and those strings that she refused to qualify as underwear.

“I seriously don’t understand why he stored this stuff…” Maybe, he liked it, she thought. Of course, he did. After all, he was just a man. Of course, he liked that stringy underwear that seemed to be straight out of a porn movie. “This is all going in the trash…” Fallon muttered to herself, now just hoping none of it belonged to pop-tart Ashley.

“Seriously, Liam?” she shook her head at a box full of wigs before she spotted other labelled boxes, carefully put away behind it. “Oh… This is interesting.” She said, picking up the box labelled ‘Memories’. Opening it, Fallon found it to be filled with classic photo albums. Deciding to start with the biggest one, she pulled the white album from the box.

“The Lowdens.” She read the front of the very elegantly design album. It didn’t take her long to figure out that it was Laura Van Kirk and John Lowden’s wedding album. Fallon was speechless as she turned page after page full of beautiful depictions of what looked like a couple truly in love.

Feeling like she had just hit jackpot, Fallon put the album back in the box and picked it up to take it downstairs into the kitchen with her.

“June, I think I need your help with something.” She started, walking into the kitchen and setting the box on top of the island. “Do you know that guest room on the left side of the corridor, going out of our room?” she asked, hoping her description was clear enough.

“I think I do.” June said, stirring the soup once more before turning away from the stove.

“Do you know whose stuff is all that in the closet?” Fallon asked as discreetly as possible, not wanting to come off as the jealous unsecure wife.

“Oh, that’s miss Lucy’s stuff.” June said, approaching Fallon and the large box.

“Even the clothing?” Fallon figured the box, and the albums were a family thing, but she didn’t understand why Lucy would have left clothes there, especially that kind of clothes.

“Yes.” June nodded. “Miss Lucy bought this apartment when she moved out after the fight with her mom. Then, Liam joined her and her husband shortly after. They all lived here for a while until miss Lucy and Teddy bought the house they are living in now and moved. That’s when Liam bought the apartment from his sister.” June explained.

“Oh… I guess she just left some… _stuff_ behind.” Fallon mumbled, trying to forget how harshly she had just judged her sister-in-law. Honestly, she would never have guessed that all that stuff belonged to Lucy. She would certainly be asking her about it during one of their lunch dates. Lucy was always so classy. There had to be a good explanation.

“Hm.” Pulling the albums out of the box, Fallon started piling them up. “I found this box in the room and I think you can help me.” She picked one of the albums randomly, opening it up to find a picture of young Laura cradling a newborn baby. “Is this baby Liam?”

“Oh, no.” June replied, smiling down at the picture in the album. “That’s miss Lucy.”

“Oh, right.” Again, Lucy. She was all over the place. Fallon really needed to invite her sister-in-law over to catch up. “And who is the baby that John is holding?”

“That’s Elliott! He is miss Lucy’s age and Mr. and Mrs. Lowden always took a lot of pictures when they had the two babies together. At the time, Mrs. Lowden was really good friends with her sister-in-law, the first Mrs. Van Kirk.” At the time being the keyword, Fallon thought. As far as she could tell, Laura and Ophelia couldn’t stand each other now, and that was a mystery she really wanted to uncover another day.

“Oh, wow, I thought Elliott was a few months younger than Lucy, but he is way bigger than her!” Fallon exclaimed, noticing the stark difference in size of the babies.

“He is.” Fallon looked up confused at June. “Miss Lucy was a premature baby. She was born a little early and she was always really small,” June clarified, putting emphasis on ‘small’ before continuing, “but she caught up eventually! Besides, Elliott was always a big boy!”

“Oh, I didn’t know that…” Fallon whispered, her eyes going back to how protectively Laura held the newborn against her body.

“Yeah, you would never be able to tell now. This is little Liam.” June pointed to another picture on the album. “Oh, my sweet baby.” She smiled at the photograph of the sleeping baby Liam in a bassinet. He was surprisingly chunkier than Fallon had imagined and slept exactly just like he did now.

“Oh my… He was really cute.” Fallon leaned over, wanting to look closely at the picture of her husband as an infant. “What was Liam like as a baby?” she asked, out of curiosity.

“He was a really good baby, actually. The totally opposite of miss Lucy.” June said, flipping another page of the album, and revealing another selection of baby pictures. “Mrs. Lowden was obsessed with him.” And obsessed really was an understatement, June thought. “I was his primary nanny but for the first few months of his life, I was barely allowed to touch him.” June said in a serious tone.

“Oh, wow.”

“She didn’t need much help anyway. He barely cried and when she was not holding him, Mr. Lowden was.” June sat down in the bar stool next to Fallon as they continued looking at the pictures. “I only really started taking care of him when Mrs. Lowden went back to work, and even then, she made me, and the baby, go with her to the office.”

“I think that does explain the relationship Laura has with her children nowadays. She doesn’t even speak to Lucy and she doesn’t seem to be able to let Liam live his life away from her.”

“You see, Mrs. Lowden didn’t really… _bond_ with miss Lucy when she was born…” Fallon could see June was trying to be as careful as she could while talking about Laura’s relationship with her children. “Of course, she loved her daughter, I truly believe she did… and does…” Despite everything and in her very unhealthy way, she meant. “but Lucy was a complicated baby. She stayed a long time in the hospital and then she came home but she cried a lot and kept everyone up all night… Mrs. Lowden really didn’t have the patience, or the experience, necessary to deal with a baby like her. It wasn’t exactly a nice introduction to motherhood.” Fallon could see June was trying to justify Laura’s actions, for whatever reason, but she still couldn’t understand how it could be so hard for Laura to bond with her own daughter. That was supposed to be a natural thing, right?

“Of course, she didn’t have the patience.” Fallon scoffed. “Did she just not take care of the baby?”

“No, no, she did. She tried, at least…” June whispered, running the tip of her fingers through some pictures before going to quickly check on the soup she was making parallelly. “It just was a difficult adjustment for her, and then Betty ended up taking over most of the time. Betty was really good at keeping miss Lucy happy and quiet, so it was the easiest for everyone.”

“So, she just gave up on her daughter?” Fallon asked as she watched June add some more ingredients to the soup.

“It’s not fair to say that.” There she was defending Laura again, Fallon thought.

“It seems like it was what happened.”

“Mrs. Lowden wasn’t doing very well herself at the time. She got better mentally…” June whispered again, like it was some sort of forbidden secret she was telling. “over the years, and she was totally different by the time she had Liam. Or Jack, the name she picked for him.”

“Oh yeah, sometimes I forget Liam was Jack once.” Fallon chuckled as June joined her again and they kept flipping pages of the album.

“He was really both all his life.” June started explaining. “Mrs. Lowden wanted to call him John, after his father. She was set on having a junior, but Mr. Lowden didn’t really like the idea. He had a Laura, and a Lucy, so he really wanted a Liam.”

“Oh, I see. That’s cute.” Fallon couldn’t help but smile knowing the meaning behind Liam’s name. “Although, I do like the name Jack and I even think it fits him nicely. Jack Lowden has a really nice ring to it. I told Liam we could use it for our baby if it is a boy, but he vetoed it. So… no Jack.”

“That’s what Mr. Lowden did too, but I think both you and I know who really was in charge in that house. Mrs. Lowden ended up getting her way. She convinced her husband with Jack, a nickname of John not many people used. It wasn’t exactly a junior, but it was close enough.”

“Oh, he was so precious.” Fallon said, taking one of the pictures of baby Liam from the page of the album with intention of later adding it to their own baby’s baby book. “So, he really is named after his father…”

“He is, but Mr. Lowden always called him Liam.” June said, remembering for so long that was a secret between the kids and John. “Well, not in front of his wife, but most of the time. Miss Lucy was also pretty good at switching between Jack and Liam.”

“How adorable is this!” Fallon squealed at the picture of a small Liam sleeping against the family’s big dog by a fireplace. “How was he like as a kid?”

“He was always a really sensible child. Wise beyond his years some would say.”

“So, a perfect little angel!”

“Not quite that!” June laughed. “He could be very mischievous too! Especially around that age.” She said pointing at the picture of Liam sleeping with the dog where it looked like he was about 5 years old. “And when paired up with miss Lucy! She could get him to do anything and he was quick to participate in her little pranks… Of course, she was also the one that got into the most trouble after… She was the oldest child and both Mr. and Mrs. Lowden had very high expectations for her.” The more Fallon learned about Liam’s childhood, the more she felt like she really should invite Lucy over for some drinks.

“Yeah, I guess that’s why Liam has all her childhood pictures. I guess she doesn’t want to be reminded of any of it.” Fallon flipped another page to find a portrait of Lucy and Liam sitting in chairs side by side, clearly instructed to keep their backs straight and smile.

“She still had a very good childhood! She was a total daddy’s girl and Mr. Lowden spoiled that little girl more than I can even explain… But… she is, as I’m sure you know… Very headstrong and independent. Miss Lucy and her mother always clashed and with her father dying and miss Lucy getting pregnant at such a young age…” June sighed. “It all crashed down at once. It was very hard for all of them.”

“It seems to me like Laura never really was a good mother to Lucy.”

“Maybe you are right.” June looked straight at Fallon. “But I know Mrs. Lowden suffered a lot when miss Lucy left. It was not easy for her either but… they were both just too impulsive, and… then their pride got in the way and it never let them heal from... from all that happened around that time, and now…” June hesitated in telling Fallon too much as she didn’t know what Liam had shared with his wife.

“And now it has been years since the last time they even spoke to each other.” Fallon completed. “Laura completely cut her daughter off her life.”

“Miss Lucy did the same.” June countered. “It didn’t have to be like this. They are mother and daughter. Mrs. Lowden might have not been a good mother to her, but miss Lucy totally rejected all the occasions her mother tried to get closer to her again… Like when Emily was born… Mrs. Lowden was really destruct when miss Lucy denied her every attempt to meet her granddaughter. At that point, miss Lucy had completely shut her off.”

“I guess you reap what you sow.” Fallon shrugged. “I understand Lucy. She made her life a living hell and then she wanted to share the happy moments? Uh-uh.” Fallon shook her head. She had not talked to Liam about what kind of role Laura would have in their future kids’ lives, but she wasn’t exactly looking forward to watch Laura play the loving grandmother part after knowing how much she tried to keep them apart so many times before. “Sometimes I wish Liam would do the same… But I know he is too forgiving. I know he would eventually forgive her.”

“Mrs. Lowden is not as bad as you think.”

“Maybe. She is not as awful now as she was when Liam and I got married…” Fallon said, reflecting on how far her relationship with Laura had come in the past 2 years. She knew they would never be friends, but she liked that now they could at least have a proper conversation that didn’t always end in an exchange of insults. “Did you enjoy working for her?”

“For the most part, I did.” June confessed. “I worked for her for over 30 years, dear. She was never the most pleasant person to work for, but… You get used to it, and I know a side of her that I don’t think you got to see yet… and I’m not sure you’ll ever be able to.”

“How so?” Fallon asked, taking another photo from the album before focusing all her attention on June.

“People change a lot in the course of 30 years, Fallon. You’ll be a totally different person in 30 years.” June caressed Fallon’s cheek. “A lot happened to her. Life changes people. Sometimes, not for the better.” June got up to turn off the stove and taste the soup, deciding it needed a little more salt. “Not all stories get a happy ending. Her story took twists that I don’t think she could have anticipated, and that I don’t think she deserved.”

“You are really confusing me over here with your opinions on Laura…” Fallon confessed. There was something about the way June talked about her mother-in-law that somehow always made her question for a few seconds if it was possible that, the devil-in-person she knew, could actually have feelings.

“She is not my favorite person either, believe me, but I have come to understand her and…” June pointed to a picture of her younger self holding Liam with Lucy standing by her side. “You see this here? All the memories I had raising those kids… It makes it all worth it.”

“And… You can tell the truth…” Fallon said shyly, afraid for some reason that the feedback wouldn’t be good. “How has it been since you have been with us?”

“A dream, dear.” June smiled, placing her hand on top of Fallon’s. “Seriously. It makes me so happy to take care of the household stuff for you, and it means a lot to me that you trust me to coordinate the staff… And when you invite me to come with you to New York… Though, I have to confess I always miss everyone back in Atlanta. I always worry things are not being taken care of properly.”

“You are like family to us, June.” Fallon said, sweetly squeezing the old lady’s hand. “Liam and I want you to enjoy working for us. I hope you know you can come to us when you need something. Anything. We just want you to be happy with us.”

“I am. Nothing makes me happier that seeing you two in love.” She held Fallon’s chin, looking her in the eyes. “And hopefully soon, seeing you with a little someone else… You’ll make a beautiful family.” June smiled, getting up to turn around and check the time on the kitchen’s large clock. “Shouldn’t Liam already be home? It’s almost dinner time!”

“Yeah, he should.” Fallon looked down, gathering the albums and one by one, try to fit them all again into the box.

“I’m starting to get worried.” June said, pacing around the kitchen, wondering what could have had happened to Liam.

“Don’t be. He is probably just stuck in traffic, or avoiding coming home…” Fallon sighed, looking away so she didn’t have to look June in the eyes and explain how she had messed up.

“Why would he do that?” June stopped, waiting for an answer from Fallon, clearly seeing how there was something more she wasn’t saying.

“We had a fight this morning. I think he might still be mad at me because of it…” Fallon admitted, thinking how he had left without kissing her goodbye. He never left without giving her goodbye kiss. That’s how serious it actually was.

“Is that why he didn’t join you for breakfast this morning?” June asked and Fallon just nodded her head shyly, still thinking about how stupid she had been.

“It’s nothing serious... I just wasn’t very nice…” She said, just wanting him to come back home so she could kiss him and apologize again. “I think you should keep that one.” Fallon said, nodding to the picture June was holding of her with the Lowden siblings.

“Thank you, sweetheart.” June thanked, slipping the photograph inside her apron’s pocket. “And… Just apologize… You know he can’t stay mad at you for too long.” The older woman suggested, and Fallon just nodded in response. “Don’t ever let your pride make you lose something you cherish. Just look at what happened to Mrs. Lowden.”

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝚅𝙺𝙸 𝙲𝙾𝙽𝙵𝙴𝚁𝙴𝙽𝙲𝙴 𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼. 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺. - 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝙵𝚁𝙸𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟸𝟿𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_Fallon looked around the large conference room. Everyone looked so into their own little world and indifferent to her presence. As much as she tried to distract herself, Fallon’s eyes always ended up looking forward, through the glass walls and directly at Liam, now happily chatting with his grandma while bouncing Violet on his knees._

_“Oh, look who it is.” She heard the familiar voice before she saw her mother-in-law walking into the conference room and coming directly towards her. “Fallon.” Laura smiled, adjusting the folders she was carrying in her arms._

_“Laura.” Fallon said back, with an equally fake smile on her face._

_“Where is my son?” Laura asked, not being able to spot Liam anywhere._

_“Over there.” Fallon pointed, making the Van Kirk turn around to see the same sight Fallon had been looking at before she walked in._

_“Oh, I see.” Laura mumbled, noticing her mother sitting by Liam. Now it was clear to Laura who her replacement would be. “Of course,” Laura laughed, before she took a few seconds to examine the interaction between the Van Kirk matriarch and her grandson and tried to figure out what could it be that Eliza was showing him in the papers she was holding. “What are you doing here?” Laura finally turned her attention back to Fallon. “I don’t remember seeing you in the attendance list for this meeting.”_

_“My husband invited me.” She replied simply, keeping the same fake smile on her face._

_“I’m not sure that being married to Liam is enough for you to attend these family meetings. You see, there are some rules in this company and in this family.” Laura explained, taking one step forward, and shortening the distance between Fallon and herself._

_“Oh, and you make those rules?” Fallon laughed and raised her eyebrow, now getting excited to see Laura falling from the pedestal she had put herself on._

_“For now, I do. Liam knows that and I should have been warned about you coming.”_

_“Maybe, he wasn’t worried about what you think…” she shrugged. “Or, he thought my very loving mother-in-law would be the most welcoming anyway and help me fit right in with my new family.” Fallon said ironically, quickly glancing over at the other Van Kirks in the room._

_“I know what’s going on, Fallon.” Laura rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Liam never cared about this company. I know perfectly well what’s happening today. There is no need to be smug about it. I just don’t know why he changed his mind, or who made him change his mind....”_

_“So, you know you are losing your position as CEO today.” Fallon assumed._

_“I do. I have known for too long that this family doesn’t seem to appreciate all I have done for this company over the years. I mean, they really showed how ignorant they all are by choosing Liam as the next CEO.” Laura chuckled. “I tried and tried for years to teach him about the family business and he never, even once, showed any interest in it.” She shook her head as a signal of her disapproval. “It doesn’t seem to be a very conscious choice.”_

_“What’s that supposed to mean?”_

_“They are choosing someone who is totally unqualified for the job.” Laura clarified assertively. “Liam is gonna need me. This isn’t some little start up you can just slip into overnight. VKI is an unstoppable machine. If he doesn’t want to look like a fool running a company like VKI, he is gonna need my help.”_

_“Maybe he won’t need you. He has other people on his side.” Fallon countered. She knew VKI was a challenging company to run, and even if she would never admit it out loud, she would be scared to run it herself. On top of being a large company, VKI had all these decentralized departments, all working with millions of dollars, that absolutely required the best top management. It wasn’t just an unstoppable machine as Laura had called it, it was a monster._

_“Aw, sweetie. Don’t be silly, Fallon.” Laura laughed loudly, making some of the Van Kirks in the room turn around to check what was happening. “Daddy didn’t let you play with his company so you thought we would let you play here?” Laura snickered again. “I’m sorry, but not under my watch, honey. I don’t care what kind of spell you put on my son, but you are not getting your hands on this company.”_

_“I don’t need your company. I’m only here because of Liam.” Fallon clarified, looking over Laura’s shoulder to check on Liam in the lobby. “He asked me to be present and help him and that’s what I’m going to do. Regardless of if you like it or not.”_

_“The CEO wife syndrome. Don’t worry, I have dealt with it before. Ask Moira.” Laura said, nodding at her former sister-in-law chatting with Jamison in one of the corners of the room._

_“Call it whatever you want, I’m staying.” Fallon crossed her arms, standing her ground._

_“Then, we better get you a seat next to all of Max’s wives.” Laura said, walking towards the large conference table and looking at the section were Max Van Kirk’s wives usually gathered. “But you know…” Laura hesitated. “Even that doesn’t feel right. You see, the only reason we allowed them to even sit in these meetings is because they claim they need to be here to represent Max’s precious little heirs. You don’t even have that, so I don’t really see what you are doing here.” Laura explained, not even realizing the extreme shade of white Fallon’s face had turned._

_“Laura!” Eliza Van Kirk uttered after walking into the room and seeing Laura checking the name plates on the table._

_“Mother.” Laura spoke, getting away from the table, putting back Mercedes’s name tag that she noticed was oddly out of its usual place. “Done plotting against me?”_

_“Don’t be childish, Laura. You know why we got to where we are today.” Eliza said before joining her grandson by Fallon’s side._

_“Is everything alright?” Liam asked, adjusting Violet’s weight in his arms before placing a gentle kiss on Fallon’s cheek as he realized how pale she looked._

_“Hm-uh.” She muttered in response, still thinking about Laura’s comment when she questioned her presence’s validity in the meeting._

_Even if she was still pregnant, which Fallon had just been reminded she was not, Fallon would never had exposed her pregnancy to her mother-in-law just for a quick comeback. However, she still wished she had not been so taken aback by Laura’s comment, or by the image of Violet’s little arms wrapped around Liam’s neck. It all made Fallon wish things were different, and that she could have had the opportunity to come up with a quirky remark about the heir they were expecting without directly letting Laura know._

_“Are you sure?” Liam whispered again in Fallon’s ear and she just nodded._

_“I was just trying to see where you plan to sit Fallon. I don’t think we have enough space.” Laura said, trying to justify why she had been messing with the name tags on the table._

_“Oh, don’t worry. We have space. Liam is sitting at the head of the table and Fallon is sitting on his right, and you on his left.” Eliza said firmly. “It’s time things change around here, and this company can become something we can feel proud of.” Eliza smiled, taking her grandson’s arm. “Today, Fallon is our guest of honor but who knows… maybe in the future she might be a valuable addition to our team.” The matriarch suggested, winking at Fallon._

_“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Laura wasted no time in making her opinion heard._

_“You were the one that sold Carrington Atlantic back to her family.” Eliza sneered. “Fallon has been trained in the energy business since she was a child… And we are still looking to get VKI a good energy department, after the multiple failed attempts in the past to buy established energy companies.” Eliza explained, glancing between Fallon and Laura. “I think that, as a new member of our family…” She continued, noticing her daughter’s eye roll. “and an expert in the field, Fallon would be the perfect person to take care of that. Either for purchasing a new energy company… Or who knows, build our department from the ground up!” Eliza exclaimed, her level of excitement revealing to Laura that her mother had most likely thought seriously about those options and would push all she could for it to happen. “That is… If you would be willing to take on the challenge.”_

_“I could.” Fallon said confidently. “I don’t know if I should…” she added, smiling at the grandma. “I’m trying to focus on my company, Fallon Unlimited. I’m not sure I want to take on media and energy at the same time.”_

_“We have time to talk about it.” Eliza gently patted her arm. “We are just getting started. I have time to convince you.”_

_“Violet…” Liam said, squatting down to put Violet back on the floor and speak to her eye-to-eye. “Here. Take this.” He said, reaching for his pocket and taking some dollars out of his wallet, handing the Hamiltons to the little girl._

_“Giving the child money?” Laura raised her eyebrows disapprovingly as Violet looked attentively at Liam waiting for further instructions._

_“Go up to Rosie and tell her that I told her to take you and your brothers to the lounge area in floor 1. Can you remember that?” he asked, and the little girl just nodded in agreement. “Good. They have a lot of fun stuff there, so you don’t have to be bored up here while the grown-ups are in the meeting, okay?”_

_“Thank you, Liam!” her little voice echoed._

_“Promise me you won’t eat too much sugary stuff.” Liam said in his most serious tone._

_“I promise.” She assured him, slipping the bills inside her dress’s pocket._

_“Pinky promise?” Liam held out his hand, waiting for Violet to wrap her tiny pinky around his, which she did without much hesitation. “Go on. Have fun with your brothers!” he told her, standing up and rearranging his suit’s shape._

_“Bye!” the little girl waved before skipping on her way out of the room._

_“Goodbye, Violet!” Fallon said, smiling at how happy the little brunette was._

_“Where is Moira and why are you taking care of her child?” Laura complained. “Don’t the nannies do their job now? Ugh…”_

_“Laura…” Eliza whispered, trying not to snap at her daughter. “Can you please stop making a drama out of everything? Just for once, please. The child just wanted some attention. It’s not a big deal.” Eliza looked around the room to check if all the family members were already there. “Someone in this family should look after her.”_

_“Perhaps her mother.” Laura insisted. “I just don’t think we should have our new CEO as the babysitter in charge. Before we know it, we’ll have to set up a daycare somewhere…”_

_“Shouldn’t the meeting have already started?” Fallon asked, desperately wanting to change the subject._

_“Yeah, it should.” Liam said, intertwining his fingers with Fallon’s. “Grandma, can we start?”_

_“Yes, sweetheart. I think we are all here. Let’s start this meeting!” Eliza said loudly so everyone in the room would get the cue and take their places at the table. “We have a lot of important topics to discuss! Laura, Fallon, Liam… Please take your places.” She said sitting down at one of the heads of the table and instructing Liam to take the other one._

_“Come with me…” Liam whispered, squeezing Fallon’s hand slightly. “I’m a little nervous.”_

_“You’ll be fine.” Fallon said, stopping to kiss him. “I love you.” She ran her fingers through Liam’s beard, looking him in the eyes to make sure he knew how proud she was of him. “I’m here.”_

****

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝚅𝙺𝙸 𝙱𝙾𝙰𝚁𝙳 𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼. 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺. - 𝙰𝙵𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙽𝙾𝙾𝙽. 𝚆𝙴𝙳𝙽𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙹𝚄𝙻𝚈 𝟸𝟽𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

It had already been two hours and looking at everyone’s faces and then at the conference’s room clock, it was clear to Liam that it was more than time to take a break and let everyone out of the room for a while. He knew himself how much he needed it.

“I know it’s already time for our break, but I got the results from the external audit I had done and the results I asked Elliott to get from our data analysis team, and I’m glad to report that the results are very similar which means we have been doing a good job at self-evaluating our work.” Liam said, tapping on his iPad screen, checking his list of talking points, before his eyes caught the little date on the top of the screen, the realization of what day it was, startling him for a second.

“Can we go?” Nathan asked, ready to get out of his seat.

“Not yet. Before we go, I want to give you some folders I put together for each one of you with the feedback for your teams and some of the most important project proposals for the rest of the year and early next year. You’ll need to go over it thoroughly for our meeting next week so you can present any concerns you might have. I would also like it if you could define the teams for each one of your main assigned projects. A small presentation on general plans would be nice.” Liam added.

“Did you include budgets?” Nathan asked, switching positions on his chair to get comfortable, since it would still be a while until their break.

“Yes.” Liam said, along with a nod. “The budgets are all up for negotiation, though. Present some good arguments and we can talk numbers.” He said winking at Nathan, the head of the financial department.

“Are you gonna give us the folders?” Fallon asked quite roughly, Liam clearly seeing by her tone how tired she was of being stuck in that meeting.

“Here. Mom.” Liam said, handing the first folder to Laura Van Kirk. “I’m gonna need you to give some your farmers and production contacts to Fallon, so she and Jeff can work with the new plans for the sustainable agriculture goals we established.” He explained, looking proudly at Laura and Fallon sitting side by side.

“Yeah, I already talked to Jeff and he is willing to help us out, I just need to send him the information of our farms and an extensive inventory of the technology each one of them has currently.” Fallon elaborated. “He also said it might be an interesting plan to present to some of our retail partners. See if some of them would be willing to do an upgrade.”

“I don’t know about the retailers, but” Laura said, scribbling down something in her notebook. “I can send you all the farming related information later.”

“Thanks.” Fallon replied courteously, going back to typing something on her laptop right after.

“Good.” Liam smiled at the civilized conversation his wife and mother were able to hold when working together now. “Elliott. There is a lot of exciting stuff in there. Money shouldn’t be a problem for you.” He said, extending his arm to hand Elliott his folder.

“Yeah, we got a shit ton of external investors for all of those projects.” Nathan added, excited about the numbers he and Liam had previously discussed. “You hit the jackpot, bro.”

“Are you still coming to that meeting this afternoon with the startup I told you about?” Elliott asked Liam, opening his folder to take a quick look at some of the papers. “They are really excited about meeting you.”

“Nathan.” Liam handed his other cousin his respective folder. “Yeah, for sure.” He told Elliott.

“I’m going too.” Nathan informed, more than actually asked. “I mean, if you are thinking about investing there, I should be able to see what’s going on. I might not understand half of the geeky stuff they do but I want to see where we are putting our money.”

“You are totally right. It makes sense. You are welcome to join us.”

“I wasn’t asking.” Nathan winked cockily at Liam.

“Then, I think Quinn should go too.” Eliza added. “Isn’t this the same startup that has those biodegradable medical supplies?”

“Yeah, it is.” Liam nodded, realizing that having Quinn, their head of Health & Biotechnology, go with them was actually a good idea. “Okay, but no one else. Four of us is more than enough. Quinn.” Liam paused, picking up her folder to hand it to her. “There you have a lot of stuff to share with Elliott. Same thing with the financing. It shouldn’t be a problem at all.”

“Good to know.” She said, taking the folder and opening it up immediately after, just like Elliott had done.

“Jamison. Ophelia. You will be working together on some projects and I think you should talk to Louis too about the land we want.” Liam instructed as he handed out two more folders. “It’s all in there.”

“We will…” Ophelia sighed. “I still think we need a new head of construction, Liam…” she voiced her concern, and Liam couldn’t believe he was hearing about it again.

“Please, don’t let the personal hatred get to our work.”

“That’s what I’m saying. He was extremely unprofessional when we worked directly with him last time.” Ophelia, the responsible for the architecture and design projects, clarified.

“You know why that is, Ophelia…” Mercedes said, not taking her eyes from the tablet in front of her.

“Mercedes. Here.” Liam said, handing his Marketing and PR expert her own folder, hoping that was not the start of yet another family drama fight. “And please… Let’s not get into all that right now.” He begged, seeing the fire building in Ophelia’s eyes, but it was too late.

“You can’t expect to have an affair with your sister-in-law’s husband and think things won’t be awkward afterwards!” Mercedes blurted out, referring to the scandal years prior when the whole family found out about Ophelia’s affair with Louis, during her sister-in-law’s birthday party.

“And we got into that…” Liam breathed out, taking one hand to his temple, just begging all divine entities not to let it get out of hand.

“Like you are one to talk! It’s not like you didn’t have an affair with my husband! I don’t even know why you are still here!” Ophelia, Max Van Kirk’s first wife, yelled back to her successor.

“Ladies… Please.” Quinn, Edith and Louis’s oldest daughter asked her aunts.

“Can you stop?” Elliott, Ophelia’s oldest son, stepped in too. It had been embarrassing enough for them all those years ago. They didn’t need to be constantly reminded of their parent’s mistakes. “We are all tired of this conversation.”

“Yeah. Enough. That’s all irrelevant here. Please find a way to work with the construction department. Find a team leader that can take care of the communication. I don’t care, just get it done.” Liam sighed, picking up the last folder. “Fallon.” He said, handing it to his wife.

“Thank you.” She smiled as she took it, seeing how tired he was too.

“Before we go on the coffee break… I just want to acknowledge how happy I am with the results we got, and especially with the official integration of our new energy department in the VKI ecosystem! The first six months have been a success and I hope you can all keep helping Fallon with your contacts and areas of expertise so we can grow Morell Corp and improve all of our ongoing projects with the integration of our own energy solutions.” Liam stated proudly, his eyes focusing on his wife no matter how hard he tried to look at the rest of the audience.

“Yes, Fallon is awesome.” Nathan rolled his eyes as he finally got up from his chair. “Stop drooling.”

“Yeah, we know. You love her.” Elliott added, blowing kisses at them in a mocking manner, while leaving the conference room as well. “Time for a snack!”

“Just go!” Liam yelled, dismissing his cousins mocking behavior before going up to Fallon, leaning forward to speak in her ear as low as he could since she was sitting right next to his mother. “Can we talk?”

“Sure, boss.” She whispered back, turning her head to plant a kiss on Liam’s lips.

“More privately…” he whispered again, this time noticing how Laura tried to look at them from the corner of her eye without being caught.

“Let’s go get some cake.” Fallon said, getting up from her chair and holding Liam’s hand as they walked out of the room. “Your office or mine?” she asked, licking her bottom lip and pulling slightly on his tie.

“What?”

“My desk is a bit messy, but we can just throw it all on the floor and I will take care of it later…” Fallon told him, wrapping her arms around his neck in an apparently innocent hug.

“I don’t want to have sex.” He whispered to her, smiling as her head immediately popped right up again at his revelation.

“Oh, I thought you wanted to go for a quickie.” Fallon pouted. “Now I’m disappointed.”

“No…” he smiled, taking her hand as they walked slowly through one of the corridors. “I realized something while looking at the calendar. Shouldn’t you have gotten your period already?” he asked softly, making sure no one was within earshot.

“Yes…” Fallon replied shyly.

“Have you taken a test?” he asked, the sparkle in his eyes growing bigger.

“I have not.” She rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand nervously. “I have tried not to think too much about it… I don’t want to get my hopes up. The truth is… Last two times, I got my period right on the dot, and I’m usually never late, but…” she sighed, looking down as they walked, not sure what else to tell him. 

“How late are you?” he asked, stopping them in the middle of the hallway.

“Just 2 days.” She said, looking up at him. “I don’t want to start reading into all the symptoms and then be disappointed, so… I’m just ignoring it for as long as I can.” She said, remembering how hard it had been for her when she got her period the past two months since they started trying to conceive.

“I think we should do it.” Liam said firmly and with the biggest smile on his face. “Do you have any pregnancy test?”

“Here?” she snorted. “Liam… I don’t carry pregnancy tests with me at all times…”

“There is a pharmacy just down the street… We still have time. I could go get you one and we would know. I think we just need to do it.” He said, squeezing Fallon’s hand as he did a little nervous dance.

“Liam, I’m not taking a pregnancy test in one of VKI’s bathrooms. And at least of all times, in the middle of a meeting with pretty much your entire family.” She said seriously, setting her hands on both sides of his face, and pressing her pursed lips against his. “It’s just a terrible idea, but… If I’m pregnant…”

“Which I think you are…” he whispered, licking his lips to savor the remaining taste of her lipstick. “You have to be, Fallon.”

“If I am, I will still be when we get home after the meeting. We can take the test then. At home… Without your mother just a few rooms away.” Fallon said, taking his hand once more to guide him to the lounge area at the end of the hallway.

“Okay. Fine.”

“Don’t pout, babe.” Fallon smiled at Liam’s defeat.

“We still have some time. Do you want to eat anything?” he asked as they got to the lounge area and he noticed the bar in the corner filled with pastries and other goodies.

“Do they still have that heaven-sent red velvet cake?” Fallon tried to spot the red colored cake from where they stood.

“I think they do. Anything else?” Liam asked, trying to get her full request.

“A coffee, please.” She said, taking a seat on a table by the large glass wall that gave them a wide and bright view of the big city.

“You already had a large coffee today, Fal…” he observed.

“And?” she narrowed her eyes, looking from her seat, confused as to what that meant. “I need to stay awake during that meeting. It’s really your fault it’s taking so long.”

“I’ll be right back. I will get your food for you...” he sighed, going away for a couple minutes before coming back with a tray with their afternoon snack. “Here is your cake.” He announced, putting the plate in front of her.

“And my coffee?” she asked, noticing it was missing from the tray, where the only drinks were his orange juice and a bottle of water.

“It looks like someone didn’t get to chapter 4 of What To Expect When You’re Expecting yet.” Liam teased her before taking a big bite of his own slice of cake. “Or is just pretending that she doesn’t know about the moderation of caffeine intake during pregnancy…”

“We don’t know if I’m pregnant, Liam.” She said with her mouth full of the red velvet cake, looking around to make sure no one was close enough to actually hear what they were talking about.

“Well, I think you are, and you are eating and drinking for two, so… eat your cake and forget about the coffee. I brought you water if you need help… getting it down.” He smirked as he watched in adoration as Fallon stuffed her mouth with more cake.

“Hmm! Just as good as I remembered!” she moaned, licking her fork to make sure she got all the icing. “You might need to share your slice with me, or… sorry, share with the baby.” She smirked, turning the whole pregnancy thing on him. “Wasn’t that on chapter 4 too?”

“It was… And I would gladly share if we knew for sure it was the baby asking and not just you trying to steal my food.” He said, cutting his remaining piece of cake in half. “But I will give you half of it anyway because I love you too much to say no to you. Here.” He said, transferring her half to the plate in front of her.

“Thank you, babe.” She smiled. “This extra half slice will be appreciated.”

“And talking about babies and chapters…” Liam said, taking the opportunity to suggest something that had been on his mind for quite a while. “I think we need to go somewhere this summer.”

“Where do you wanna go?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged, not really caring where in the world they ended up, as long as they were able to be together by themselves. “But I really think we should go somewhere.” He reinforced the idea. “This will probably be our last summer without a baby and I think we should enjoy it. Away from New York and Atlanta… and our families.” He explained his thought process. Not that they needed a specific reason to go on a romantic getaway. “I’m also finally done with my book and I think we should go before the release date. After that I will probably be busy with press, on top of all the VKI stuff, and you will have to go back to your million different projects. So… What do you say?”

“I think we deserve it. We are going.” She nodded her head, as she kept enjoying the cake. “Book it.”

“I will. We just need to decide when and where.” Liam knew Fallon had an extensive list of places she wanted them to go together; certainly, she would be able to come up with something.

“I think we can go as soon as we are done with everything here. Probably in a few weeks, maybe sooner if we are lucky...” she said, trying to recall all their work commitments for the next 2 weeks.

“Yeah, we have some meetings in the beginning of August, but I think it’s safe to assume we will be free by the 10th?” he said reluctantly, not completely sure if the dates would work until he could check his calendar. “Maybe we could go from the 10th to the 20th?”

“Hm, I know where we can go!” she exclaimed as the idea emerged in her head. “Do you remember when I won last year, and we ended up in French Polynesia?” He just nodded. Of course, she won. She always did. “Well, this time we could go to Greece like you so desperately wanted last year. Does that still sound good to you?” A good compromise, Fallon would say.

“Sounds perfect.” He leaned forward, eyeing the little bit of frosting remaining on the corner of her mouth and determined to suck it off her. “But after our vacation in the Polynesia last year… I would go wherever you wanted.” He sighed, daydreaming about the warm sun hitting their naked bodies after sex by the pool of their private villa. “Now, you have to hurry. We have less than 5 minutes to go back.”

“Ugh. Let’s go.” She said, taking another big bite of the cake before getting up.

“Easy. I don’t want you to choke.” He chuckled.

“Don’t you?” she said with a smirk on her face after she finally chewed the cake on her mouth. “I can’t believe we still have like one hour left in that meeting…”

“Think about this… the quicker we get that meeting over with, the sooner we’ll go home and take that little test…” he whispered, pulling her body towards him so her stomach was pressing against his.

“Yes, yes, we will do it as soon as we get home, but…” Oh, no, there was a ‘but’, Liam thought. “you still have to go with Elliott to that thing… in the startup or whatever it was. I didn’t pay attention; I was half asleep.”

“Oh, you’re right… I totally forgot about that.” He couldn’t believe that he had extra work on the only day he desperately wanted to rush home. “Will you wait for me to do it?” he asked, putting his charming blue eyes to work to convince her to wait for him.

“Of course, babe. Don’t worry! I won’t do it without you!” she said, her lips instinctively going for his, the most natural seal to all their agreements. “It will be hard to control myself, but I will wait for you, daddy.”

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙱𝙰𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼/𝙲𝙻𝙾𝚂𝙴𝚃. 𝙰𝚃𝙻𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙰. - 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝙼𝙾𝙽𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚁𝙲𝙷 𝟸𝟹𝚁𝙳, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_Fallon waited for Liam to be out of the house, checking the live surveillance images on her phone of his car leaving the driveway of the manor before she could safely retrieve the pregnancy testing kit, she had bought at the pharmacy the day before, from under their bed where she had hidden it._

_They had just come back from their honeymoon and the fact she wasn’t feeling that well, added with the little pill accident was all she could think about, day and night, ever since. In order to finally put an end to that agonizing uncertain feeling that had been haunting her since they got back, Fallon decided she just needed to take the test and face the results. No matter what they were._

_“Right.” Fallon forced herself to stop looking at the box, and finally open it, pulling out the instructions. She wanted to make sure she didn’t mess it up and actually got accurate results. Looking through the step-by-step picture guide for the first time, she figured it couldn’t be too hard to do. After all, she just had to pee on a stick and wait for some sort of sign to show up._

_As she was throwing the instructions pamphlet aside, she heard Liam enter the room once again, totally unexpectedly. As his voice echoed through the room, Fallon felt the panic of being caught rushing through her body; her adrenaline levels spike and her heart racing frantically as she gathered the box and the unused white stick from the top of the bathroom counter as fast as she could and threw them roughly inside a drawer, hoping there was nothing Liam would need inside it._

_“I forgot my charger.” Fallon heard coming from the bedroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and prepared her best poker face as she knew he would meet her in the bathroom in just a few seconds for an additional goodbye kiss before leaving again._

_“Oh, I could just have taken it to you.” She said as Liam entered the bathroom, the charger in one hand and the car keys in the other._

_“It’s okay.” He kissed her, just like she had expected him to do. “You look beautiful.” Liam looked at her from head to toe and couldn’t help but kiss her cheek too before leaving her alone once again by the sink; her heart racing faster than ever as if she had just done something illegal._

_As soon as Liam was out of sight, Fallon felt a tear slowly rolling down her cheek. She couldn’t believe she was about to take a pregnancy test and she hadn’t even told him about the possibility of it coming out positive. She stared at herself in the mirror as more and more tears involuntarily fell down her face, wondering what she was doing._

_“Pull it together, Fallon.” She told her reflection before drying the tears on her face carefully so she wouldn’t smudge her makeup and taking a deep breath to be able to move forward with what she had to do. Deciding it would do her no good to dwell on it, Fallon recovered the white stick from the hair products drawer and headed to the toilet._

_The minutes after felt like the longest minutes of her life, and when the clear message showed up on the display, Fallon didn’t even know how to react to the “Not Pregnant.”_

_She was so sure the outcome would be different. She had to be pregnant. She couldn’t find any other explanation to what had been happening to her._

_While she was still in shock over the result, Fallon decided to run into the bedroom and grab the other box that had come with the kit. After checking the instructions once again, just to be sure she hadn’t done anything wrong the first time, Fallon repeated the process all over again, and waited by the bathroom counter one more time, just to see the same result show up again a couple minutes later. “Not Pregnant.” She read out loud so it would register in her brain. “Okay.” She felt relief settling in. There had to be another explanation for how she had been feeling. Maybe, she was sick, she thought. Both tests said she was not pregnant. That definitely was not it. “Bye.” She said throwing the two plastic sticks into the bathroom trash can._

_At least there was nothing to tell Liam. He would never need to know about her little slip._

_Or so she thought at the time._

****

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙰𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙼𝙴𝙽𝚃. 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺. - 𝙽𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃. 𝚆𝙴𝙳𝙽𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙹𝚄𝙻𝚈 𝟸𝟽𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

It seemed like he would not be able to get home before dinner time. First, the startup visit seemed to have no ending; between smiles, and drinks and little robots everywhere, Liam felt like his cousins were doing everything to spend the night there.

“I’d love to go to dinner with you, but my wife and I have tickets to a show tonight.” He told them a little white lie that seemed to finally free him. However, after his excuse finally worked, it was the New York traffic that seem not to be cooperating, and at each red light, Liam felt like calling Fallon one more time just to make sure she still hadn’t taken the test.

“I’m here!” Liam yelled as he opened the door to their apartment and ran upstairs as fast as he could, rushing into their bedroom, and anxiously looking around for Fallon. “You didn’t do it, did you?” he panted, a little too out of breath as he entered the ensuite bathroom and saw her standing by the sink. “Tell me you didn’t do it.”

“Of course, I didn’t, but it was getting harder and harder to resist doing it.” She said, picking up the test from the counter as Liam sighed of relief. “Also, I really, really need to pee.”

“C’mon, go do it then!” He didn’t have to ask twice before she was inside the toilet division, closing the door behind her for some privacy and leaving Liam behind it. “I was thinking on my way here…” he started, sitting on the floor by the door. “If you are pregnant right now, we’ll probably have the baby in March and, how funny would it be if the baby was born on our wedding anniversary?” he said, looking down at his hands with a stupidly happy smile on his face. “Did you do it?” he asked impatiently, hearing motion behind the door but not really understanding what was going on.

“Almost!” she replied, struggling to put the cap back on the plastic stick. “Ugh… They really need to figure out a more hygienic way to do this.” She complained as she finally opened the door and prompted Liam to stand right back up.

“We could have got you a blood test.” He said, walking right behind as she headed back to where she previously was by the sink.

“You know what I mean.” She said, putting down the pregnancy test in the bathroom counter, backing away from it. “Don’t touch it, I’m pretty sure I got pee all over it.” She said, pacing in circles around the bathroom.

“You have taken a bunch of these and you still haven’t figure it out?” he said, picking up the stick anyways. A little pee couldn’t scare him. “C’mon. Sit here.” He said, sitting down on one of their bathroom benches and tapping on his lap to invite Fallon over. “I’m excited.” He whispered, wrapping his arms around her, and making sure the display on the test was down so they wouldn’t be taken by surprise by any result. “I have a good feeling about this one.” He said, placing a kiss on her shoulder before she turned slightly to hug him.

“Me too.” She murmured, feeling more nervous and impatient than anything else. “Turn it around.” She whined, finally lifting her head from his shoulder to try to locate the test.

“Let’s give it a while longer…” The wait was the worst part for Fallon, but Liam really wanted to take just a little while longer in that embrace before their lives changed forever.

“C’mon, just turn it around.” She whined again, an eager tone that he couldn’t resist. “Please…” she begged, placing her hand over his, turning it slightly so they could see the result.

“Oh.” He gasped, all the air entering his body somehow not being able to find its way out again. “Fal—” Liam’s eyes quickly forgot the test’s display and focused on his wife; her body apparently frozen on his lap with no reaction. “Sweetheart…” he whispered, kissing her exposed shoulder for some comfort.

“It’s okay.” She said, clearing her throat and shaking her head to bring her back to reality. “It might be too soon. I think it’s too soon.” She repeated, getting away and looking down at her hands as she made some calculations in her head. “There is a chance—"

“Babe…” Liam knew what he had seen, and no matter how much he wanted to believe that she could in fact still be pregnant, he just didn’t. “I think this might not be it, yet.” He said, calmly, holding her hand and bringing her body closer to his again. “I’m sorry… I think we might have been too excited…”

“No, Liam.” She pushed him away, longing for movement, her body heating up by the second. “You don’t understand.” She tried to explain. “This happened before!”, a sudden nervous smile appearing for seconds on her face, “I might still be pregnant.” She repeated, Liam’s heart breaking as he saw the lingering hope in his wife’s eyes. “Last time…”, she exhaled, “the first two tests I took also came out negative. Remember the two negative tests in the box? I was pregnant and the tests were negative.”

“Babe…” Liam had no idea what to tell her. He knew _those_ tests she mentioned from last time, and he also knew how they had been taken much earlier than they should have been, hence why they had come back negative. Deep down, Fallon knew that too. 

“I feel different, Liam.” She tried again, now unsure if she was convincing him or herself. “I’m gonna take another one.” She breathed out, reaching down for the drawer where they kept their statch of pregnancy tests.

“Fallon.” He whispered, bending down so his hand could reach her shoulder before he got on her level to look her in the eyes. He somehow felt guilty. He had been mad at her and refused to have sex with her for a couple days during her fertile window. Maybe they had missed it because of him. Maybe it was his fault she was on the verge of tears now, Liam thought.

“Not today, okay?” he asked, taking the box she already had in her hand and putting it back in the drawer; the sadness in his voice making the tears in her eyes even more evident. “I’ll tell you what…” he started, taking both her hands and pulling her back up with him. “Tomorrow we’ll get you a blood test, okay?” he used his softest tone, trying not to break as he watched tears falling down her eyes. “We will know for sure, then.” She just nodded, knowing her voice would crack if she even attempted to speak. “But… I really don’t want you to get your hopes up, Fallon.”

“You were the one all hopeful!” she yelled, in the midst of her tears, letting go of his hands. “You made me do this! You made me believe!” she said louder, getting all her anger out.

“Fallon… I—” he sighed heavily, letting fall his own tears, mostly after seeing how upset she was, and how guilty he was feeling. “I’m sorry, babe. Come here…” he pouted, opening his arms to hug her tightly. “We’ll wait, okay?” he whispered in her ear, gently rubbing large circles on her back, in an attempt to sooth her disappointment. “Tomorrow we will know. We will know for sure.” He murmured against her neck, placing a subtle kiss on her warm skin as she hugged him tighter. “It will be okay either way. We are doing this together, remember?”

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙱𝙰𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼/𝙲𝙻𝙾𝚂𝙴𝚃. 𝙰𝚃𝙻𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙰. - 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝙼𝙾𝙽𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚁𝙲𝙷 𝟸𝟹𝚁𝙳, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_Fallon was just about to leave the bathroom when she halted herself, thinking about how she couldn’t risk have Liam find the tests in the bathroom trash. The chances of him even looking inside were slim, but so were the chances of him walking in the room to get a charger just when she was about to take a pregnancy test. She wasn’t risking it. The tests couldn’t be out in the open. That was decided. Now she just needed to find them another resting place._

_Going back, Fallon got on her knees on the bathroom’s tiled floor and, trying to come in contact with the least things possible, she rescued the two white sticks from the trash can, staring down at the results one more time to let her brain process them again. “But where?” she whispered to herself, trying to think of a good place to hide them._

_She paced around the bathroom while holding the two white sticks, and then around her room, until she finally found herself staring blankly at the clothes in her closet._

_“Fuck.” She muttered, looking up and down the walls of clothes without any idea of what to do. And then she spotted it. She barely ever looked at it, he wouldn’t either. It was high enough to be out of sight and it was casual enough for him to never even question what was inside it._

_Getting on her tiptoes, Fallon reached for the stack of jewelry boxes resting on one of her closet’s higher shelves with the help of a little bench. “This will work.” She told herself, opening the white jewelry box where Liam had offered her a necklace in, a few months back, and throwing the two plastic sticks inside it, rushing to put it all back exactly where it was, before someone else entered the room._

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙰𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙼𝙴𝙽𝚃. 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺. - 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝙽𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃. 𝚆𝙴𝙳𝙽𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙹𝚄𝙻𝚈 𝟸𝟽𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

The moment she felt the first, very light cramps, she knew what it was. She turned in bed once, and twice until it was impossible to put her mind to rest. In that moment, she knew he was right. There would be no need for a blood test, or for any kind of test for the matter.

Mother nature was in charge of letting her know exactly what was happening.

And what was happening was that she was bleeding.

“Ugh.” She groaned as she dropped her panties in the moon-lit bathroom and spotted the little blood stains that foreshadowed the bleeding of the following days. She never learned. She had let herself believe; that was what hurt the most. She had allowed to let herself have faith.

The third failed attempt. “Okay.” She told herself, doing her best to control her emotions before throwing the stained underwear in the hamper and going into the closet to find herself a clean pair, adding a pad to it before going back to bed.

And there he was, lying on his stomach, his face against the mattress, and his lips slightly parted as he snored. Fallon slipped inside the covers again, feeling extremely jealous of his peaceful state. That’s all she wanted now. A simple peaceful full night of sleep, which she was certain she wouldn’t get.


	4. déjà vu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fallon and Liam have a lot of fun at home and at work but they don't have a lot of fun at parties.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: I know this is rated Explicit already but this chapter is especially smutty. It has 3 smut moments so, you have been warned!! Continue at your own risk!  
> Also, it might need a little more editing, so forgive any mistakes (but also please do tell me so I can fix them right away!)  
> I have also updated [the rainbow timeline](https://mrsfallonridley.tumblr.com/rainbow-timeline) in case you are confused about the order of events.

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙲𝙻𝙾𝚂𝙴𝚃/𝙱𝙴𝙳𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼. 𝙰𝚃𝙻𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙰. - 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝚆𝙴𝙳𝙽𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙰𝚄𝙶𝚄𝚂𝚃 𝟹𝚁𝙳, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

Liam should have known better than to mess with her like _that_. It was all his fault, truly. He had started their little teasing game and now he was paying the price for it. He really should have known that she would give him hell for what he had done.

That morning, when he closed their bedroom’s door with a smug smirk on his face after leaving behind a very horny Fallon, begging for more in between their sheets, he should have known that would mean payback.

The devil worked hard, but Fallon Carrington Ridley worked harder.

Liam would say he was usually pretty good at handling her constant teasing, and that he had mastered an impressive ability at self-control, but today he was doubting himself. After all, being married to a woman like Fallon came with its own set of challenges, and one of the biggest ones was definitely keeping up with her in bed.

Thankfully for the two of them, that had never been a problem for Liam. Until that day.

It was mostly embarrassing for him. He had never had anything like that happen to him before. At this point, Liam was just glad his meeting was finally over, and he was heading home now. If Fallon wouldn’t help him, a really cold shower hopefully would. It needed to work, since nothing else he had already tried seemed to be helping him.

As he parked his Tesla right by the front door, Liam looked down at the erection between his legs, twisting himself in his seat one more time as he pondered if he would even attempt to button up his pants again before going inside. What if he run into someone? It was probably wise to try to recompose himself a little. At least enough to make it to their bedroom. Just in case.

“Ugh.” He breathed out as he adjusted his shirt over the waistband of his agonizingly tight pants to make sure everything was covered, before the sound of another notification caught him off guard and held him back from leaving the car.

He looked over at his phone, still in the car’s phone holder and saw another picture of Fallon pop up on the screen, and another loud groan escaped his mouth as his finger instinctively tapped the screen to zoom in the picture. That was definitely not helping him in anyway.

By the background of her most recent picture, he knew exactly where he could find his wife and that was where he intended to get to as fast as possible.

“Down, Neve.” He said as he opened the bedroom room door and was greeted, as he always was, by the jumping dog. “Daddy needs to find mommy. C’mon, go to your bed.” He said, quickly patting the dog before pointing to the luxurious dog bed set up in one of the corners of their master bedroom. “Fallon!” he called out for her, knowing she had to be somewhere close.

“In here!” He heard her voice coming from the closet, just as he expected.

“What’s going on here?” he asked, looking around the chaos installed in the division right before he spotted Fallon leaning over the biggest closet island with her back to him. “What’s—" his jaw dropped, making him immediately reach for the button in his pants, as he saw his wife in the black lace bodysuit that had a beautifully ornamented 1700s corset top. Liam had no idea where she had gotten that from, but he liked what he was seeing.

“You are home.” She stated coyly, turning around to reveal to him the elaborate front of the elegant corset that enhanced perfectly the size and roundness of her breasts.

“Wasn’t that what you wanted with your little pictures and videos?” He knew exactly what it was gonna happen next. She was gonna play innocent, tease him a little more, and then pretend doing him a favor as she jumped his bones. Typical devilish of her.

“I didn’t ask you to come home earlier, did I?” It had started, but Liam was not about to play her game.

“What’s this?” he asked, weaving his fingers through the lace strings tying her corset close. The scene was a lot to take in. Before his eyes could get lost in Fallon’s sexy outfit, Liam looked through all the stuff that she had on top of the large island counter, spotting right away a wide range of different items, including a little of everything; from his brown leather jacket, to some of her diamond necklaces and even her vibrator.

“Do you like it?” She asked, handing him one of her biggest diamond necklaces. “Oh, I’m sorry, it’s evident you do.” She murmured, grinding her ass against Liam to get him to moan as he clasped the jewel around her neck.

“Fallon.” He puffed, feeling a sudden fervor within him that made him step back to undo his pants just enough to give him some relief. “I got hard in the middle of a meeting, Fallon.” She thought it was funny, and hot, even if he didn’t sound one little bit amused.

“Oh.” She uttered in surprise as she looked down to see how hard he was. By the looks of it, and her vast sexual experience with Liam, it looked like he had been edging himself for quite a while. About an hour, if she had to guess. “Why was that?” She smirked, slowly walking towards him to wrap her hand around him.

“And you are lucky—” Liam flinched, choking on his words as he felt her cold hand on him. “I don’t share the entire screen when I’m presenting something. I was there trying to come up with a list of things I wanted to do—” he flinched again, biting his bottom lip as Fallon’s hand reached his tip. “To do in the book tour and your pictures just kept popping up...”

“If my texts were really bothering you… You could have just muted our conversation…” she whispered in his ear, growing wetter as she noticed Liam’s struggle under her touch. “But you came home… So, I’m guessing you actually enjoyed them.”

“Fallon.” He said seriously, taking a deep breath before he continued. “I—” He realized that if he wanted to continue talking coherently, he would have to take her hand away from him. “I’m worried, Fal… It won’t go away.” He said, looking between the two of them.

“You don’t need excuses, honey… I will obviously help you out.” She said, returning to the island to grab some big diamond earrings to complement her already extravagant outfit. She was definitely going for a glamourous historic look that mixed a Renaissance queen with a modern-times hooker. Liam had never met someone that loved to get that dressed up just to have sex as much as Fallon.

“I’m serious.” Liam said, taking off his shoes so he could get rid of his pants next.

“Did you take something?” Not that Fallon thought he needed any kind of blue pills, but she had never seen him so miserably hard like that; extremely red from the blood constriction, his veins popping as he leaked small amounts of precum, and had an awfully sensitive reaction at any of her little touches.

“No, I’m afraid this is all you.” He breathed out, not believing his condition either.

“Did you jerk off?” Fallon asked, stopping herself as she prepared to get into the big period dress that complemented her corset nicely. Liam knew he wasn’t supposed to. That’s what they had agreed to in their little baby making plan. He and his hand were on a break.

“I know we had an agreement… But yes!” he blurted out. It was all her fault. She couldn’t send him that kind of spicy content and not expect him not to touch himself over it. “More than once, actually, and I can’t—"

“In the bathroom?” She wanted details. She wanted him to tell her exactly what and how he had done it. She wanted to know which pictures and which moments in the video had excited him the most.

“That too.” He said, going up to Fallon to make sure she didn’t even think about getting into the large dress that would be way too complicated for him to get her out off. “I tried in the car too. But I just can’t come, Fal.” He whined, looking down her cleavage. That was her fault too. It had been so long since he last had to take care of his urges by himself that he wasn’t sure he even knew how to, anymore. “I have tried everything.”

“You haven’t tried me.” She said, kissing his cheek before going back to tidy the mess she had made on the top of the island, starting by shutting some of the diamonds’ boxes she had tried on. “This is nothing I can’t fix…”

“Please.” He begged, hugging her from behind. “What were you doing here by yourself?” he knew the answer. It was obvious by the videos he had gotten earlier, and the wide range of different outfits she had put on for each one of them, but he also wanted details.

“Well… I was in a… Veronica mood, but I can’t seem to find the box with her stuff, so we will have to improvise.” Fallon said, putting on her signature red lipstick. “We had agreed on no hand action on yourself… and you have clearly—” she halted, suspending her breath as she looked down at his erection again. “You have clearly ignored the rules… and since you have been so bad today, I think you need some punishment…” she whispered, lowering herself to place a kiss on his tip. “With Veronica props or not.” She concluded, smirking at him before turning her back and going back to tidying up the closet.

“I think I’m suffering enough already.” He said, leaning forward to kiss her shoulder, his hands on her waist, desperately trying to turn her around so he could suck on her red lips. “C’mon, Fal…” He huffed, feeling sweat forming on his forehead; the closeness to her, mixed with his torturous arousal making him enter a panic stage as his body got desperately fidgety.

“Be patient.” Maybe she would ease on the teasing since seeing him so agitated was starting to work against her, Fallon thought, as she felt herself growing wetter at his pleads.

“I don’t think I have ever seen this little beauty before…” he said, playing with the strings on the back of the corset. Yes, he loved it, but all Liam could think about was how much he wanted to take it off so he could get his hands right on her boobs.

“You have not.” She said proudly. “I have never worn it before. It’s from my baby making shopping. You should have seen it with the dress on… It’s gorgeous.” She said, looking back at him.

“ _You_ are gorgeous.” he couldn’t waste the opportunity to kiss her. Capturing her lips in his, Liam ran his hands through the back of the corset, feeling the texture of the fabric before settling his fingers on the edges, pulling it apart to loosen it a little and give her more room to breathe.

“And I really like this, but we will have to let go of it in a bit…” he whispered, as Fallon turned her attention back to the island, resting her elbows on the surface as she playfully grinded against Liam. “Let’s assess the situation.” He said, his hand dropping to the bottom of the black body suit, pushing the fabric to the side so his fingers could get a feel of her; and damn, did she feel like she had been waiting for him all morning.

“Just—” Fallon exhaled at the touch of his warm hands. It was stupid to keep on torturing both of them like that. Finally giving into his treatment, Fallon let her own hand reach down to unclasp the tiny buttons at the bottom of the bodysuit, giving him full access to her. “Just fuck me already.”

“Oh, sweetheart, you don’t have to ask twice. Hm.” Liam said, readily lining himself up between her legs. He had never been so eager to feel her around him; just hoping that would be enough to finish what he had started. “Dear God, Fallon… So wet...” he groaned in pain as he felt himself easily slide into her. “What were you doing, baby?” It was pretty obvious what she had been doing.

“Didn’t you get my videos?” She managed to say between moans, as Liam didn’t seem to be sparing a single second between his strong thrusts.

“I did.” He groaned again, shutting his eyes at the overwhelming sensation he felt each time he entered her. Each time feeling like that could be it. That could be the one to give him the release he desired. “How many?” He needed to know. He knew she had come at least twice by the little treats she had sent him, but he needed to know if there had been more.

“Three.” He wasn’t surprised. Of course, there was at least another one off-camera.

“Oh, honey.” He groaned at the mental image, biting down on her shoulder as he stilled himself inside her for a few seconds, to rest and feel the throbbing sensation that he couldn’t get rid of. “Did you do it all by yourself?” he asked, wiping some sweat off his forehead.

“I had help from a little friend.” She said, leaning forward the best she could to reach for the pink vibrator before she twisted her torso to show it to him. “I was afraid you were gonna leave me hanging, Leland!” she said sweetly as Liam judged the tiny rabbit vibrator. “I don’t even like this one but my favorite one broke, so… You are gonna have to get me a new one.”

“Anything you want.” Liam assured, deciding to speed up his thrusts again and feeling a growing discomfort right away. The harder he slammed his hips against her, the more the painful pleasure intensified, making him question if this was gonna help him in any way or just torment him more.

“I have another video.” Fallon moaned, twirling her hips as she remembered what she had intended to send to him right before he arrived. “This is what I was gonna send you next…” she panted, feeling Liam’s fingers run through her hair, and then suddenly grip onto it as she pressed play. “Do you want me to turn the sound on?” she asked, knowing he was watching it over her shoulder.

“Do you want to hear yourself, babe?” Liam kissed the back of her head, mesmerized by the scene playing in the phone’s screen, groaning louder with each thrust as he watched Fallon finger herself, now in a midst of loud moans after she upped the volume. “Damn, babe… I think—” he slowed himself down again to be able to properly breathe. “That’s so hot.”

“Is it helping?” she panted, noticing Liam was still clearly struggling.

“I feel like I’m on edge.” He breathed out, feeling his balls tightening again with no release. “I just can’t—"

“Don’t wait for me, okay?” she whispered, placing her hand on top of the one he had resting open on the top of the closet island, giving him the much-needed support to keep moving.

“I want you to ride me like that.” he huffed, watching as Fallon changed positions in the video.

“Yeah? With your jacket on too?” She suggested, grabbing the jacket she had sprayed with his perfume from the other end of the island, bringing it closer to them.

“Hell yeah!” That sounded like a plan. If something was gonna send him over the edge, it was gonna be Fallon riding him with his jacket on. Liam really couldn’t think of a more ideal scenario. “But nothing under it…” he added readily, pulling out to make some adjustments to her outfit. “It’s time to say goodbye to the corset.” He said, taking a deep breath, before taking his hands to the back of the one-piece, ripping it open in a single move of arms and throwing into the mess in front of them.

“I thought you would never get rid of it.” Fallon turned around, putting the jacket on and smirking as Liam’s eyes dropped immediately to her boobs; his hungry pupils making her laugh as she pulled him in their bedroom’s direction.

“Relax…” She said, pushing his back against the mattress, before climbing into the bed with him. “ _Kissies_ for good luck.” She whispered, holding him tightly in her hands, perking up her lips before she started placing gentle pecks across his length, starting from the bottom until she reached the very tip. “Close your eyes.” Fallon ordered, noticing the anxiety in Liam’s face as he watched her carefully. “Breathe.” She placed her palms on his chest as she straddled him as slowly as she could.

“I—” he gulped when he felt Fallon guiding him inside her. “Fal.” He whimpered, twisting himself under her. He was tired, really horny and really tired. “Hmm…” He hummed as she finally sank herself all the way down.

“I think this is a bit of sensory overload, honey. You are so tense…” she said, lowering herself on his chest, her boobs squeezing between them and her diamond necklace hanging as she allowed his hand to slip inside the jacket, and his fingers to run across her back. “Keep your eyes closed, baby. Listen to my voice. Breathe, and just answer my questions.” She instructed, kissing his lips and feeling his heavy breathing right by her face.

“Did you look at my pictures when you jerked off?” she started her inquiry, finally moving her hips a little.

“Yes.” He puffed, scrunching up his nose at the steady movement. Fallon decided to take it slow, giving him all the time that he needed until she watched the frown that he had on his face ease into a more relaxed expression before she decided to increase the speed.

“Did you think about how you left me here practically begging this morning?” This seemed like it would you be enough revenge. Fallon had some whips and handcuffs in mind for his punishments, but that didn’t seem appropriate at the moment. He had tortured himself enough already.

“Yes.”

“That was really mean. You never refused me a second round before...” she whispered, seeing how a shy smile finally appeared on his face between moans, and his hands finally moved from the tight grip they previously had on her waist to travel across her body. “I think you can look at me now.” He seemed relaxed enough, Fallon thought, pushing herself off his chest into a sitting up position in his lap, giving him the most mesmerizing view of her boobs bouncing, accompanied by the diamonds, as he opened his eyes. “How was your meeting?”

“Hard.” Liam exhaled, remembering looking across the table at all the executives in pure agony. “Really hard.” He said, finally opening his eyes, which couldn’t decide between staring at her untamed wavy mane and his open brown-leather jacket, that offered him the view he had been longing for.

“Do you have a date for the release?” she asked, moaning as she sped up her movements and started to feel the feedback of her actions shortly after.

“Hm-uh. September 9th.” He said as he stretched his arms so his hands could reach her boobs, putting a stupidly happy smile on his face when he grabbed them. “Ou-Oh.” He stammered once Fallon started jumping on him, propelling herself on his chest.

“Shh…” She had tried to keep herself together until then, but it was definitely starting to be harder and harder not to give into the growing heat building up within her. “Did it turn you on…” she panted, the simple thought working in her favor as well. “To get a boner in the middle of the meeting?”

“Hm.” He moaned, going back to his firm grip on her waist, trying to control her fast movement as he spotted the very signs of her upcoming orgasm. “Fal—”

“I will take that as a yes.” She managed to say, determined to accomplish her mission before she got too carried away. “Just so you know…” she started, leaning into him again, craving to feel Liam’s heartbeat underneath her as she shared with him her earlier adventures. “I was thinking about you every time I came. I could smell your cologne in your jacket… Just like now.” She sniffed him, moaning at the musky smell of his perfume mixed with his sweat, igniting her feral instinct as she bit into his earlobe. “Can you feel that?” she whispered seductively, tightening her pelvic floor muscles, preparing him from her big finish.

“Yes. Yes.” That was it. That was enough. That was what he needed. “I—" Liam’s eyes widened, making him suspend his breath when he realized that this time, along with the uncomfortable tension in his balls, came release.

“That’s right. I knew you could do it.” Fallon panted against his neck, undulating her hips in the same constant motion through his groans. “Oh!” she squealed when Liam flipped their positions in bed; feeling cocky now that he started to feel some relief at last.

“Finally.” He panted, thrusting into her a few more times, fully enjoying the effect of the serotonin and oxytocin travelling through his body. “I love you.” He gasped with one last thrust, driving him forward, making his lips collapse on top of hers.

“Don’t stop!” Fallon screamed at the feeling of his hips stilling. “I’m almost there—” she whimpered, on the edge of her orgasm.

“C’mon.” Liam groaned vigorously as he picked up the pace, struggling to keep up with her for much longer.

“I can’t.” And then it surprises him when he feels a release again, an apparent consequence of his previously long edging. His mouth opening wide in shock, making him look down between her legs at the feeling of them intensively pulsating together.

“Please. Oh god. Fallon.” He shuts his eyes close, stilling himself in a plank over her as she continues to squirm under him through her own climax. “Fuck.” Liam screamed at last, throwing his body to the empty spot next to her in bed, afraid that he would collapse on top of her if he continued. It was too much. As his back hit the mattress, Liam felt his body completely shut off, making him unable to move or even speak.

“Are you okay?” Fallon asked, looking over at a completely still Liam by her side as they both recovered. “Liam…” she started, sitting up slightly in bed to check on him.

“Don’t touch, please…” he murmured as he felt her hand on his thigh, not even bother to open his eyes. “I have no idea what the hell happened.” At least he wasn’t hard anymore. That was one less problem.

“Liam…” Fallon hummed, resting her head by his. “Does it hurt?”

“Hurts so good.” He chuckled, taking one hand to his hair, ruffling it a little. “Not right now.” He sighed of relief, blindly turning his head to kiss her. “I think it worked.”

“I’m glad I could help…” Fallon moved her body so her head rested on his chest and she could kick her legs up high against their bed’s headboard. “And thanks for almost dying for me. I’m sorry.” She apologized, feeling guilty for making him continue after his climax without giving him a little break, especially considering what he already had been through.

“It’s okay. Consider it my thank you card to you for helping me with my little problem...” he smiled, finally opening his eyes to find her just staring back at him. “Shower?” he suggested.

“In a bit.” She started shyly. “I know there is no actual scientific evidence behind it, but I think I will stay here for a little while.” She explained, nodding at her legs up high, with a pillow underneath her to raise her hips. “If this today doesn’t get me pregnant, I don’t know what will.”

“I will keep you company. I want to shower with you...” He said sweetly, just running his fingers through her hair. “We just had sex in front of the dog.” Liam blurted out as he turned his head and saw Neve observing them from her little corner of the room.

“I don’t think it was the first time, Liam.” She laughed. Little Neve had seen a lot of what happened in that bedroom and, although she didn’t seem impressed at all, she also didn’t seem to be bothered by it.

“We both know it wasn’t, but…” Liam smiled as the dog raised her ears and tilted her muzzle back at them. “Look at her.” Fallon twisted herself just enough to catch a glimpse of Neve and Liam’s staring contest.

“Poor baby… Do you think we have traumatized her?” Fallon asked playfully.

“I hope not. Sorry, Neve.” Liam assumed, lifting Fallon’s head before sliding one arm under her back and another under the crevice of her knees, picking her up into his arms. “I think that’s enough waiting… Let’s go. Time to shower!” he announced, carrying her into the bathroom.

“It’s cold!” she complained at his choice of showering settings.

“Well, we don’t want me and my friend to get all excited again.” He winked, knowing their showers rarely ended up being innocent moments between the two of them.

“Maybe we do…” she winked back.

“Fallon.” He tried to sound serious, but it was useless. It was just one of those days. “You are incorrigible. I don’t know what I’m gonna do with you.”

“Too bad you are stuck with me forever.”

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙰𝙻𝙴𝚇𝙸𝚂 𝙲𝙰𝚁𝚁𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚃𝙾𝙽'𝚂 𝙱𝙸𝚁𝚃𝙷𝙳𝙰𝚈 𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃𝚈. 𝙲𝙰𝚁𝚁𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚃𝙾𝙽 𝙼𝙰𝙽𝙾𝚁. - 𝙽𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃. 𝙵𝚁𝙸𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙹𝚄𝙽𝙴 𝟷𝟸𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_Liam had lost her. Again._

_Of course, Blake had gotten him distracted with his never-ending rant about how great CA and VKI could be if they worked together, and now as he looked around the glamorous birthday party, he couldn’t see his wife anywhere. This couldn’t be happening again._

_Liam’s panic only intensifying when he heard his mother-in-law’s voice coming from the stage, amplified by the microphone and he watched a mass of people coming in his direction._

_In seconds, the manor’s living room was filled with all the partygoers. All but Fallon. He would expect her to be present for her mother’s birthday speech but after he continuously searched the room, he just didn’t seem to be able to spot her anywhere._

_All Liam could think about was the disastrous ending to the last party they had attended together in New York. He didn’t even want to imagine repeating the whole scene again, now in front of the Carringtons. He trusted her, and she had promised him she would not drink. It would be okay._

_He decided to try her phone. With the loud ambient noise, he thought it was extremely unlikely that she would even hear it, but to his surprise, she picked up right away; like she was just waiting for it._

_“Fallon.” He breathed out, an irrational sense of relief taking over him. “Where are you, babe?”_

_“My father’s office.” Liam could barely hear her over Alexis’s loud voice, but he had all the information he needed. Ending the call, Liam rushed to his father-in-law’s office, gently closing the door behind him when he entered the room and saw Fallon sitting in her father’s chair, her feet casually resting on top of his desk._

_“I was looking for you…” he whispered as he got closer to the desk and sat on it. She looked like she had been crying. Not even her waterproof makeup could hide the aftermath of her crying session._

_“I needed to breathe.” She said, along with a deep sigh._

_“Is everything okay?” It wasn’t. He could see she was upset. “Do you wanna talk about why you were crying?” Fallon didn’t think he would notice, but she really should have known better. There was no point in denying it. He just knew her too well._

_“I…” Fallon wasn’t even sure if she knew exactly why she had been crying. “Can we please just go home?” She didn’t have to ask twice before Liam was nodding and extending his hand for her to take._

_“Yeah, let’s go…” he whispered, pulling her into a hug as she got up._

_They would keep trying. Maybe, next party. She had done impressively well this time. She had been in good spirits; cracking jokes, and smiling, talking casually to family friends and old business partners. She was owning the party scene like she always did, and most importantly, Liam had not seen her reach for a single drop of alcohol. Fallon had been doing so well that he had no idea what could have triggered her into hiding in her father’s office, just waiting for him so they could go home._

_She looked stunning and, now that Liam had her in his arms, he thought that she smelled even better than she looked. “Do you wanna go say goodbye to your mother?” he asked, finally pulling his face from the crevice of her neck. “She must be almost done with her speech. We can wish her a happy birthday and go…”_

_“No.” she said firmly, making Liam sense that Alexis might somehow be related to Fallon’s sudden mood shift. “It’s okay. I think we have talked enough today.”_

_“Do you wanna tell me what happened between you two?” he tried again._

_“I’m not in the mood for small talk…” she said, taking his hand and pulling slightly on it as she was determined to put an end to the conversation and get out of her father’s office, longing for the comfort of their car._

_“I wouldn’t call this small talk, Fallon.” He said plainly, standing his ground and not moving a single inch as she pulled him forward. “I don’t want you to bottle up your feelings to a point where you are going to explode…”_

_“I—” Fallon took a deep breath before she started, deciding it was best just to explain quickly what had happened so they could go home. “We were just chatting and… I made a joke about it being impossible that she is turning 50 yet again… for what is like the 5 th year in a row… And my mother took it and started rambling about age and how young she feels and how she doesn’t want… our kids to call her grandma.” Now, it made sense._

_“Yeah? What did she say?” he asked softly as Fallon looked down at their fingers intertwined in each other, deciding to give her some time before he tried again. “Whatever it was—” he was ready to give up on making her talk when Fallon interrupted him._

_“Let’s… Let’s just go home. Please.” She rose her head to ask him in a gentle plead._

_“Of course.” He knew she just needed some time._

_Fallon rushed towards the front door, as if she was taking advantage of the cake cutting moment to just slip out of the party without having anyone notice it. “I will get us a big slice of cake to eat on our way home, okay?” he asked, grabbing her by the arm to stop her just as they were walking out the door._

_“I will be waiting in the car.” Fallon said, and Liam knew she just didn’t want anyone questioning why they were leaving so soon and in such a rush. However, there was no way they were leaving the birthday party without a piece of the gorgeous cake._

_Turned out, his cake-retrieval mission had been much easier to complete than he had anticipated. Apparently, he was not the only one with cake on his mind, and while other people joined an organized queue to be handed a slice of cake, Liam simply picked up a knife and cut himself one from the opposite side of the giant roses’ waterfall cake._

_“Here you have, babe…” Liam said, extending his arm to hand her the cake before stepping into his seat. She still wasn’t talking to him, but she didn’t waste a single second before taking a big bite of the red velvet cake. Maybe, a little sugar would sweeten her mood._

_“She—” Fallon finally said once the cake was gone; her voice just barely audible over the music playing on their car ride back home. He knew cake would help. He discreetly turned down the volume of the music playing so he could hear her more clearly._

_“She noticed I wasn’t drinking and then, she started with the whole ‘now that you are married, when are you planning to have kids?’ thing, and the fucking biological clock and all the names she wants to be called as a grandmother…” Liam listened quietly as Fallon continued to rant. He could see she needed it. “And then… she just asked me if I had put on some weight or if I had something to tell her…”_

_He couldn’t believe it. He knew how rude and inconvenient his mother-in-law could be, but that just crossed a line. He tried to hide his fury, just gently placing his hand on Fallon’s exposed thigh and keeping his eyes on the road as he continued driving them home._

_“She touched my belly and everything. In front of Adam and Kirby. Everyone looked, Liam.” The tears were quick to pool in her eyes again. Trying to fight it, Fallon looked down at his hand on her leg as she remembered how paralyzed she felt at her mother’s touch._

_She still remembered the feeling. When Liam insisted on getting his hands on her stomach every chance he got. How gentle he always was, and how he always kissed her belly before leaving to go anywhere, even if it was just to grab something from the kitchen. She missed it, and it hurt her to admit how much she wanted it back._

_“Oh.” He uttered. Liam had been making a conscious effort to be careful not to let the habits he had built over the few weeks she was pregnant trigger her. He always thought twice before he touched her stomach or hugged her in bed now. It was probably the hardest part for him during the whole process. Not be able to touch her like he did before._

_“Fallon, I promise there is no bump. I told you, babe. There is absolutely no bump.” He looked over at her, only to see how unconvinced she seemed._

_A few days after the miscarriage, Fallon asked Liam if she could go to the gym with him and, although he was hesitant, he agreed. He didn’t know what had gotten into her. Fallon never worked out. Ever. She even used to joke her workout clothes were only in her wardrobe as part of her lounge wear and that there were way more interesting activities to do if she wanted to get sweaty._

_Maybe she wanted company, he thought. Something to distract her mind. He just wasn’t expecting Fallon to actually work out. However, to Liam’s surprise, she did. And she had been consistent ever since. At first, he thought she was using it as a coping mechanism; just like he was, but then he realized it was about her body. It was about all she could still see in the mirror._

_“My mother doesn’t seem to agree.” They had talked about it._

_Fallon’s baby bump never had the chance to get really big to begin with. It was mostly noticeable when she was naked or when she wore something skin-tight. An ‘extremely bloated or pregnant’ confusing kind of situation that had gone unnoticed by everyone while it was there. Now, one month later, Liam could no longer see any traces of it. As if it had never been there in the first place. But Fallon…_

_“She was just trying to get you to tell her something.” Liam said calmly, instinctively holding her hand since he couldn’t really look at her as much as he wanted to while driving._

_“That’s just your mother being extremely rude… I promise you that it’s gone, and you don’t even have to worry about it.” He would repeat it as many times as it was necessary. “Look at me.” He asked, and she conceded readily, knowing that he didn’t have long since he had to get his eyes back on the road. “You should probably tell her. She is your mother.”_

_“No.” That was a constant for Fallon._

_“Okay. Did you tell her we are not planning on having kids, then?” Liam asked as he pulled on their driveway, parking by the front door, not even caring to take the car into the garage._

_“No.” She said simply as soon as the car was completely still. They were finally home, and Fallon could finally escape. She just wanted a warm bath and to change from the dark blue jumpsuit into some light night robe._

_“Are you mad at me?” Liam asked, sensing an undeniable coldness in her replies as she quickly got out of the car, making him follow her through their large front door and up the staircase._

_“I’m not.” It was obvious, she was. He just couldn’t understand why. “But as if dealing with my mother had not been enough…” she sighed, slowing herself down as she walked up the stairs. “Your mother called me during the party.”_

_“My mother called you?” Shocked was an understatement. Knowing his mother like he did, it couldn’t be anything good._

_“Yes, me.” Fallon sounded annoyed, so he could only imagine their conversation had not gone well. He really didn’t expect anything else. After all, the last time they had been together had ended in a fight._

_“I didn’t even know she had your phone number…”_

_“She probably has it from when I called her about your accident.” That was another thing Fallon wishes she could forget. That time she just saw his motionless, pale and unconscious body on the floor by the pool as Tony The Gardner did as many chest compressions as he could to bring him back. Of course, Fallon had to call her then. No matter how much she hated the woman, she was Liam’s mother and she deserved to know about her son almost dying._

_“I never thought she would save my number, though.” Fallon admitted. “I don’t usually go and keep all my enemies phone numbers.”_

_“Enemies?” Liam snorted. Sure, Fallon and his mother weren’t the best of friends, or friends at all, but Liam wouldn’t go as far as calling them each other’s enemies. “Why did she call you anyways?” Before she could answer, Liam had to continue his chasing; this time following her into their master closet._

_“She wanted to invite us over for dinner?” Fallon asked, in a visibly fake confused tone accompanied by a frown. Kicking the heels off her feet, she turned her back to Liam so he could unzip her._

_“I didn’t know she was back in Atlanta!” he still didn’t understand why his mother had called Fallon but hopefully she would get to that point soon._

_“She isn’t.” Fallon looked mad, and it felt like, for some reason, she was mad at him. “She wanted to have dinner on Friday. Apparently, you have a meeting on Friday in New York?” Yup. She was mad at him. He knew he had forgotten something that morning. Now he knew what it was._

_“And I looked like a fool on the phone with your mother, because my husband doesn’t even tell me when he is travelling out of state, or even bothers to invite me…” she said while roughly taking off her clothes, leaving her in nothing but her underwear._

_“Oh. I forgot to tell you about that.” Liam knew he was in trouble and he would probably hear her complain about it for a while, but he had honestly just forgotten to tell her._

_He had a lot on his plate. His trips to New York had been so frequent lately, that it was hard to keep up with what he had already told her or not. “I’m going tomorrow afternoon and I’m not sure when I will get back yet. It really depends on how things go over there. I’m doing a whole lot of stuff with Elliott and Nathan this week, but I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of it!”_

_“Listen, Liam.” Fallon paused, mid-unclipping her bra, leaving Liam’s eyes in suspension, awaiting the removal of the piece of clothing covering her breasts. “It’s the third time this month you need to leave to go to New York and… you know I understand, and I support you, but… This needs to change.” She crossed her arms, making Liam’s sex-deprived mind snap out of its dirty thoughts. “We can’t keep doing this.”_

_“What do you mean?” Liam was focusing on not panicking but he didn’t like Fallon’s serious tone or her folded arms. The last thing he wanted was for this VKI business thing to take over their marriage and ruin it just as it was starting. “You know I try to come home as much as I can, Fal… Even if it’s just for a couple days.”_

_He was exhausted. Travelling back and forth between New York and Atlanta took a greater tool on him than he had expected._

_“I know, but… I feel like you have spent more time flying from one place to another than you have spent at home with me.” He was trying. He needed to see his wife and he knew she needed him home too. If that meant even more frequent flying, he would do it. Anything it took._

_“Fal—"_

_“You are learning, and you need to focus on that. I know the transition will take about 6 months and we can’t keep this up for 6 months, Liam… We just got married. I don’t want to be away from you all the time.”_

_“I’m sorry…” Liam blushed a little, fearing that he had made the wrong decision when he accepted the job, but reminding himself that if needed, he could just walk away from VKI completely. His marriage came first. Always. “I thought you were okay with it. You know I only took the job because I thought you were—”_

_“No. No, no…” Fallon stopped him, realizing he wasn’t understanding what she meant. “What I am saying is… I think we should move to New York.”_

_The suggestion hit him like a ton of bricks. Liam wasn’t expecting to ever go back to New York, the place he had been born and raised in, full time ever again. However, he was especially surprised that his Georgia peach was the one to even suggest it. Fallon loved Atlanta. And so, did he._

_“We just bought this house, Fallon...” Liam whispered, looking around the big closet, that they had just completely finished a couple weeks back. “I know how much you love it and how much you still want to do to it. This is our forever home.”_

_“I love it with you here. If you are not here, this doesn’t feel like our home.” She had a point. The house was already extremely big just for the two of them. It felt even bigger when it was just Fallon there by herself._

_“And I thought you hated my New York bachelor pad, as you called it…” And yet another bed he had shared with Ashley._

_“I do. I will have to do some redecorating on that apartment. That’s for sure.” Fallon said, along with an exaggerated sigh. “But right now, you are more needed in New York than I am in Atlanta. I can always work remotely. I got everything under control here.” she said, running her hands through his white shirt, playing with the buttons while undoing some of them._

_“Are you really sure you want to move to New York?” Liam stopped the unbuttoning and held both her hands in his. “This is a big change. There is a reason I moved to Atlanta, Fallon. I really like it more here, and we have less excuses to avoid my family if we actually live just a couple blocks away from all of them.”_

_“I just need a few days to get everything in order here but… I’m meeting you in New York this weekend, and we are staying.” She said firmly. “I’m not even taking that much stuff. I will get myself an entirely new New York wardrobe and we are starting fresh. A new beginning. It will be good.”_

_“This is not an excuse to get away from your family, is it?” He had a feeling Fallon’s sudden urge to move to New York had more to do with finding an escape for herself than with VKI’s power transition._

_“Listen. I just need to see… different things.” He was right. There was definitely more to it. “I need to be around different people… A different house… Where there aren’t this many memories. That bathtub. Our bed.” He knew what she meant. They had been through a lot in the past 3 months as a couple in that house. “That room...” The baby room._

_“When are you thinking about coming back?” He knew they would eventually._

_“I was thinking we could go for the first 6 months and reevaluate the situation after that. Maybe in 6 months, you will be totally nailing your role as CEO and you can work from home, or who knows, get a VKI office down here.”_

_“That sounds like a good plan. You are so smart…” Liam said, unbuttoning his own shirt before taking it off. “That’s why I love you.”_

_“We both know that long-term we need to live between Atlanta and New York… Business trips are always expected, and we will have to learn to live with it… but for the time being, and with your integration period at VKI, I feel like we really need to live full time in New York right now.” Fallon said, finally undoing her bra before she threw it on the floor. “I only have one request.”_

_“What is it?” He would give her anything. She could have asked for anything, and Liam would have gone to the ends of the earth just to get it for her, without ever questioning it._

_“I want an office at VKI.”_

_“Done!” He nodded, pulling her mostly naked body closer to him and making her laugh as his mouth wasted no time roaming down her neck and into her chest. Maybe this was it, he thought, as he continued to hungrily kiss her neck. “I’m gonna make sure it’s close to mine so I can visit you all the time.” He whispered seductively in her ear while one of his hands ran down her back and teasingly played with the elastic band on her underwear._

_“I’m gonna lock it if you come to annoy me too often.” She whispered back to him._

_“Annoy you? Me?” he smirked, pulling his body away from her slightly to look at her face. “Never. Don’t tell me you don’t like it when I visit you at work…” he whispered, deciding to continue his very important job, returning his attention to her neck._

_“You have to make sure it’s one with good solid blinds...” she breathed out. “Ah, and good noise cancelling, you know… Don’t want the office noise to keep me from focusing on what’s important.” She said, feeling the tingling sensation of his breathing against her chest as his mouth travelled lower and lower._

_“Obviously. We don’t want the people in the hallways distracting you.”_

_“Oh.” This was not it, Liam realized as she pushed him off her body. He was definitely gonna need a very cold shower afterwards. One month gone by, and although Liam didn’t want to pressure her into doing anything… he missed her. He really missed her, and the worst part was that he knew she missed him too._

_“Something else.” Fallon remembered, grabbing her black satin robe, putting it on immediately to cover her body._

_“We need a housekeeper.” She changed back to her business tone while Liam was still trying to deal with the frustration already built up in his body. “I’m sorry, Liam, but I’m not ready to give up the simple pleasures in life. I’m not doing any housework.”_

_“Of course, Mrs. Ridley. Hmm…” Liam tried to think of a solution. “I’m gonna ask my mom if we can have June for 6 months.” He said, sighing as he tried his best to hide the visible bulge tightening his pants._

_Maybe the household chores talk would make it go away. That was, if his mind didn’t trick him, and took him back to the memories of that one-time Fallon decided to try her hand at cooking with nothing but an apron on. He definitely couldn’t think about that. That wouldn’t help his miserable situation in any way._

_“Tell me we are not stealing your mother’s maid… How do you know she won’t spy on us for your mother?” Fallon’s concerns were valid. The last thing she wanted was for her mother-in-law to have eyes and ears inside their house._

_“Nothing to worry about, Fal. June worked for my parents before I was even born, and then, she became my nanny and raised me until I left… Once I moved out, she would come over to do some stuff for me, like ironing and cleaning, when I was living by myself. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind doing the same now. I think she loves me more than my own mother. She would never betray us.” Liam assured, but Fallon was not convinced. Someone that worked for a family for over 30 years certainly had to have some sense of loyalty. “I’m feeling pretty guilty she didn’t come to our wedding. Terribly guilty, actually.”_

_“Maybe she is mad at you about it and doesn’t want to come work for us.” Fallon shrugged._

_“She will come work for us if I ask. She is an angel. She has every right to be mad at me for it, though... I mean, she was more than a mother to me.” Liam sighed. He couldn’t believe June had not been there for his wedding._

_With everything that happened with his mom around the time of the wedding, he had totally forgot about making sure June could come. But that was no excuse. He should have tried harder. June took care of him as a baby, she played with him every day after he came home from school; she was the one that picked him up whenever he fell down and she always showed him love. Real love. “But I don’t think she will be mad…”_

_“We can make it up to her. What do you think she would like?”_

_“She is not like that, Fallon. She really doesn’t care about fancy things.”_

_“I bet she cares about you…” Fallon whispered, crashing her lips against his, as the tip of her fingers ran through his toned abs, keeping a safe distance between them. “I really want someone that loves you to love me too.”_

_“Oh, she will… I honestly think you will be her favorite…” They had talked about it, and although it was not essential, Fallon really wanted someone from Liam’s family to love her._

_She had found that kind of love once she got to know Lucy, Liam’s sister, better, as well as Eliza Van Kirk, now that they had spent more than 5 minutes together. However, Fallon still felt like an outsider around the Van Kirk clan, which in reality, wasn’t much different to how Liam felt. “She will be over the moon about my wife.”_

_“You think so?”_

_“Definitely. She will love you.” June was a lover and Liam knew that all she wanted was for him to be happy. When she saw how happy Fallon made him, there was no way she wouldn’t love Fallon instantly. “Oh.” He uttered._

_“What?”_

_“She is definitely asking when we are having a baby…” Just like Alexis did, June would probably also assume that the natural next step, now that they were married, would be for them to have a child. “Maybe I should warn her about what happened.” Liam said._

_“No.” Fallon said firmly, just as opposed to the idea as when Liam suggested they told her mother._

_“She means well, Fal, but she will definitely bring it up, and I don’t want it to be uncomfortable like it was today with your mother. She loves children and I know she is just waiting for us to have a baby so she can leave my mother and come work for us full-time, like Betty did when Lucy had Emily… If I warn her, I swear she will never even mention it.”_

_“It’s okay if she does. No need to warn her. We don’t want her to accidentally let it slip to your mother.” That was what Fallon was worried about. Laura._

_“She never would, but if you are okay with it, so am I.”_

_“Actually… We are in need of trustworthy staff… Tell her we will hire her if she wants to come work for us full-time. That is, for 6 months in New York and then move with us to Atlanta if she wants.” Fallon could tell June was important to Liam. The only way she was ever gonna trust her was if she knew she would never go back to Laura Van Kirk. If she needed a family, they would be her family._

_“Are you serious?” Liam couldn’t stop smiling at the prospect of being reunited with his old nanny._

_“Yes. If you love her, and if she is as nice as you say… I don’t want her having to deal with your mother ever again. We might not give her the baby she wants but… I think she will be better off with us. You can talk to her and your mother. Maybe during that dinner on Friday.”_

****

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙲𝙻𝙾𝚂𝙴𝚃/𝙱𝙴𝙳𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼. 𝙰𝚃𝙻𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙰. - 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝙰 𝙵𝙴𝚆 𝙼𝙾𝙼𝙴𝙽𝚃𝚂 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙴𝚁. 𝚆𝙴𝙳𝙽𝙴𝚂𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙰𝚄𝙶𝚄𝚂𝚃 𝟹𝚁𝙳, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

Liam wrapped a white towel around his waist before grabbing a smaller one to shake-dry his hair and a third one to wrap around Fallon as she stepped out of the shower just a few moments after him.

“I guess that was worth coming home earlier for…” Fallon said, disappearing into her side of their large master closet. “And almost getting caught with a boner in front of everyone at your label’s meeting…” he heard the low tone coming from a distance.

“It was.” He said, going right to his underwear drawer and putting some boxers on. “I was going back to the office but…” Liam breathed out as he turned around and saw Fallon had dropped her towel to the floor and was now fully naked while she picked what to wear for the evening. It was like a magnet.

“Liam…” she whispered as she felt him placing a kiss on her shoulder, still warm from their hot shower.

“I just couldn’t resist you.” He sighed. She wasn’t even trying, and he was getting all worked up again. “I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to get it to go away…” he admitted. “I really tried to solve it on my own.” He really did, and for as much as he felt on the edge, he just had not been able to let go. No relief. Just a growing, and growing discomfort. “It had never happened to me before.”

“Turns out, you just needed some help, huh?” Fallon would never admit it, but for a second there, she questioned if her expertise would be enough.

“But now that we reminded my little friend what it’s like to feel some relief…” he whispered, getting his hands on her body once again, both of them travelling right to her exposed breasts.

“Enough, Liam…” she huffed, knowing exactly where it would lead if she let the kissing climbing from her shoulder to her neck continue. “We made reservations, remember? It’s your favorite…”

“Oh, yeah.” He backed away at last, remembering the dinner reservations he had made for them that morning, and realizing that time was running out and he still had a lot to do before leaving. “I need to pack before we go.”

“Well… May I know where you are going?” Fallon asked, alarmed as she saw him take his travel backpack out of its assigned place in the closet and open it on the top of the diamond-filled island.

“I’m going back home to my wife, Veronica.” He said, looking back at her with a playful grin. “No? Okay.” She didn’t look happy. At all. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to Greece by myself.” he laughed at her fixed unamused expression. “I’m going to New York.” he finally clarified.

“I thought we were only going to New York on Thursday?”

“Well, you are flying on your own.” He said. “Nathan called me this morning with some _big_ problems at VKI and asked if I could make it earlier. I really couldn’t say no. We already have a meeting scheduled with our lawyers tomorrow…” he sighed, grabbing just some documentation to put inside the bag, not needing to pack any clothes since they had an entire second closet in New York. “It’s about the land for the Oakley project. We lost it.”

“Why am I only hearing about this now?” she asked while finally putting on some clothes.

“I thought I would tell you all my news when I got home.” He replied casually while he went back and forward between getting dressed and packing all he needed. “I would have texted it to you, but you got me understandably distracted with your pictures… and I completely forgot about it after my little erection problem. It was literally the last thing on my mind. But now you know. I’m leaving tomorrow morning.”

“You can’t go!” she protested, clearly upset about their change of plans.

“It’s just 2 days, babe…” he said sweetly, getting closer to her. Yes, he knew she didn’t like to fly by herself but that still was no reason to put on a miserable pout like that, Liam thought. “Then, we will be back together again, we’ll have that annoying long board meeting and, finally… we will fly directly from New York to our little Greek paradise.”

“No. No. No. You can’t go now!” Fallon whined, a hint of her tear-filled eyes joining her pout, making Liam stop in his tracks to see what all the fuss was about. Fallon The Tantrum Thrower was long gone. They were not going back to it now.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked, folding his arms as he waited for an explanation.

“I’ll be ovulating soon!” Oh, hormones. Of course, that deliciously fun sex drive didn’t come alone. “I need you home the most now! You can’t just go to New York!” he laughed, feeling more at peace now that it all made more sense. Desperate, hormonal Fallon was especially challenging to work with, so he knew he needed to be careful with his next words.

“Oh. Are you sure?” he asked, teasingly.

“Yes, Liam! I am sure!” she exclaimed, exasperated. Of course, she was sure. She planned her entire month around her ovulation. “I need you home for the next 3 days more than I do the rest of the whole month! You can’t go!” Liam laughed again at her upset frown that he found, more than anything else, just extremely cute.

“You know there is a very easy solution for that, right?”

“Which is?” she folded her arms across her chest.

“You come with me tomorrow.”

“I have a meeting tomorrow, Liam. Here in Atlanta.” Fallon countered, the same relentless unamused look on her face.

“Cancel it.” Liam walked towards her, with a proposal in mind that he was sure she wouldn’t be able to resist. “You see… I’m pretty sure I can come up with more important and fun things for you to do with me during our little trip to New York than whatever you were going to be discussing at that meeting tomorrow.” he said, sealing his suggestion with a kiss. “What was it, really? A little digital advertisement company?”

“Yeah… But I told Kirby I would take care of all the meetings during the time I am in Atlanta. She has been taking on most of the work lately.” Fallon explained. She really didn’t want to slack on her work at Fallon Unlimited, especially when things were finally taking off there.

“But didn’t you two agree she would hold the fort as much as necessary, so you don’t have to worry about those little things while going back and forth between New York and Atlanta?” he asked, and Fallon replied with a simple nod. “Give her a chance, Fal. For what you have been telling me, she has actually been doing a good job while you are away…”

“I guess I could have Kirby just take care of the meeting for me…”

“I think that’s a wise choice.” Liam winked, snapping the backpack close as he finished packing all the essentials. “I bet she will be happy that you trusted her with that.”

“I don’t, but I really don’t have another choice.”

“So dramatic.” He smiled, smooching her face in hopes to exchange the childish frown for a smile. “You should pack too.” he said, pointing at her biggest suitcase. “Don’t forget all the things you need for Greece. I don’t want to hear you complain about how I made you forget your new swimming suit… Or those gold sunglasses…”

“What do you have planned for our trip then?” She said, struggling to haul the big suitcase to the middle of the closet. “I need to know what to pack.”

“You don’t need to pack much. Remember, you have a whole another closet in New York. No need to take half of this one with you. Take just the new stuff you bought for Greece.” He knew it was like talking to a wall. She would absolutely attempt to take half the closet with her and then complain she needed more luggage.

“I would take the corset, but you completely destroyed it…” she said, picking up the article of clothing from the top of the island and throwing it at him.

“This is business, Fallon.” He said, staring between the corset and her blue eyes; a raspy low tone Fallon couldn’t resist. “We need to take this ‘I’m ovulating’ thing seriously. No corsets.”

“‘Cause you didn’t like this one...” She knew he did. That’s why she had even put that thing on in the first place. He always complained about how much he hated the complex outfits she put on for sex, but Fallon knew he liked it. She knew how much seeing his visual fantasies come to life excited him. How much he loved to rip clothes from her body, and how it drove him crazy when he couldn’t.

“I liked it…” he confessed. “But I liked it way better when it was off.” So, did she. Normal breathing with one of those on wasn’t something Fallon was sure that was possible.

“I still need to know what I should be packing for…” she said, showing him multiple underwear options.

“I think we should do it right after we wake up, in our warm, comfortable bed, then in the shower… We can do it in the closet, or in the jet…” he enumerated as both his hands ran slowly through the sides of her body. “ _Obviously,_ first thing when we get to the apartment…”

“So far, so good. That sounds like a productive itinerary.”

“You will have to pick which ones you want, though. I’m not sure we can get to all of them in one day. Don’t want to tire you out too much…”

“Oh, please…” There was her signature eye roll. If someone needed to keep up, it was him. She was more than ready. “Running out of ideas already, Ridley?”

“On top of my desk or that blue couch you love so much in my office, the jacuzzi on the balcony…” he continued. “Or on the piano in our apartment’s living room…” Liam winked, knowing about Fallon’s affinity for pianos.

“Can you imagine if we actually conceive our first child on top of that piano?” Fallon said, picturing herself laying on her back on top of the black grand Steinway with Liam between her legs. That was something she didn’t want; she _needed_ it. It wasn’t always the most comfortable, or practical, but it was gonna happen if it depended on Fallon.

“How sexy would that be?”

“Very… We might need to call the baby Doremi if that happens.” she chuckled.

“I don’t think we would ever know for sure with the number of times you are planning on doing it a day but… I’m down with Doremi Ridley. It’s…” Liam paused, looking down at her lips, just waiting for the right moment to capture them with his own, as he tried to come up with the right word to describe her name suggestion. “...original.”

“Why are you such a dork, babe?” She was hoping he was kidding, and he hadn’t actually taken her seriously.

“Does that mean it’s official we are making the baby on the piano? Do we agree this is the one?” he asked jokingly, as an inevitable stupidly-in-love grin appeared on his face.

“I guess? I really want that baby this month. Do I have any other option?” 

“You really don’t.” It was really the best solution for everyone. “And you would have to join me eventually at the end of the week… This way we can fly together, and not miss those 2 days.”

“But I want you to keep your promise...” Fallon warned, batting her eyes at him as she got closer again.

“Doremi Ridley?” he asked, followed by a giggle. “Consider it done.”

“No, never.” Fallon shook her head. She would never make their child live with a name like that. She wasn’t some cheap, porn-star looking, reality tv star. “That’s child negligence.”

“What do you want me to promise, then?” he asked, opening up his arms to receive her.

“I wanna do it on the piano.” The smirk on her lips was enough to tell him that she had a very detailed vision of what she intended to have happen on the piano that overlooked the entire city of Manhattan.

“I honestly can’t believe we haven’t already...” That was a yes, as he confirmed with a chaste forehead kiss.

“I mean, we have… Just not on _that one_.” she said, as both their minds flashbacked to all their late afternoon make out sessions in their piano room downstairs, followed by the very spiced memory of their mid-scheme break that one night on Laura Van Kirk’s penthouse piano. That was exactly the one Fallon wanted to recreate in their own apartment.

“It’s time we change that. I have had that piano there since I got the apartment and… It never got played or… used in any sort of way, really. I think this one has the best view too.” he said, remembering that even if they had fun on his mother’s piano, her old, dusty, and closed-off music room was not exactly the idealistic romantic setup.

“Baby making with a view?” Fallon licked her lips before crashing them against Liam’s as a seal to their deal. “Sign me up.”

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃𝚈. 𝙷𝙾𝚃𝙴𝙻. 𝙳𝙾𝚆𝙽𝚃𝙾𝚆𝙽, 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺. - 𝙽𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃. 𝚂𝙰𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙼𝙰𝚈 𝟹𝟶𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_Liam couldn’t believe the amount of people that had showed up. Between balloons, the fountains, the multiple bars every few rooms, the large stage and the impressive line-up of entertainers his cousin had hired, it felt like it was all a little too much for him._

_Elliott had made it his mission to throw Liam the most glamorous and grandiose party to celebrate his new position at VKI. Of course, that with Elliott in charge, Liam knew there was no chance it wouldn’t be an extravagant gathering._

_He was also pretty sure everyone he had ever met in his life was at that party. His entire extended family, his old friends, from boarding school and college, the elite of New York society and even all the VKI employees had been invited. It was a sea of people, and somehow, he felt like he had all eyes on him._

_The social interaction was tiring him out. The air around him seemed thicker by the minute, and the tie around his neck felt like it was strangling him. He desperately needed a break._

_As he finally sat down in a hidden table near the stage, before anyone else would come to talk to him again, Liam’s eyes searched through the hundreds of people in the black and golden decorated room to try to find his wife._

_No sign of her, or Melissa’s bright red hair in the large mass of moving bodies._

_He decided to check his phone once again in the hopes of seeing a notification with Fallon’s reply to his last text pop up. But nothing. She always had her phone with her. She had seen the message he had sent her earlier, and for some reason unknown to him, there was no reply._

_Last time he had seen Fallon, she was with Melissa. They were close by and Fallon seemed to be having a good time. Liam would check on her every now and then but, as he talked to person after person without a second to breathe, he ended up losing sight of the two women in the middle of the large crowd._

_His last resource, Melissa. Maybe, she would answer._

_[Sent to Mel Van Kirk 10:03pm]: “Can you tell Fallon to check her phone, please?”_

_[Received from Mel Van Kirk 10:04pm]: “She is not with you?”_

_[Received from Mel Van Kirk 10:04pm]: “I went to the bathroom and she was gone.”_

_[Received from Mel Van Kirk 10:04pm]: “I thought she had gone to find you.”_

_He tried not to worry. Maybe, she was trying to find him just like he was trying to find her. That was most likely the situation, he thought. No need to worry._

_But why didn’t she reply to his texts? Half an hour that gone by and that was just not normal. Fallon would never leave him hanging like that. Something had happened. He knew._

_His impatience was growing to a point he felt he just need to get up and go look for her, even if that meant get back into the dense crowd of people. However, just as he attempted to do so, everyone seemed to want to talk to him._

_“Liam!” Craig, one of the family’s oldest friends, and former VKI shareholder, said as he walked up to him with a wide grin on his face. “How long has it been?”_

_Everyone wanted to congratulate him. Hug him. Pat him on the shoulder. Smile and tell him how happy they were for him. How fantastic it was for him to be so young and CEO of a company like VKI. Tell him how proud his dad would be of him, which honestly just made him laugh more than anything else and, congratulate him on his marriage. How happy he and Fallon look. Yeah, definitely at their happiest, he thought ironically._

_The enthusiasm of everyone around him and the over-the-top festive spirit were starting to make him feel sick. It was too much, too fast. It felt like it was an alternative universe he was living in. A place in space where the two previous weeks of pain in Atlanta had never existed. As if less than a week ago he hadn’t been holding Fallon’s hand in Addison’s pristine white office. As if he still didn’t replay the sound of her crying in his arms as he watched her sleep at night._

_He just wanted to get out of there and that’s exactly what he intended to do as soon as he found Fallon. As he pretended to listen to what Craig was saying, his eyes roamed once more through the crowd, looking in every direction for a glimpse of his wife. He had no idea where she was, and it was driving him insane._

_[Sent to Mel Van Kirk 10:11pm]: “I still haven’t found her.”_

_[Sent to Mel Van Kirk 10:11pm]: “Please, if you see her, tell me.”_

_[Sent to Mel Van Kirk 10:12pm]: “I’m right by the stage btw.”_

_Maybe the party was too much, he thought. They had agreed to move on, yes, and Fallon seemed to be in a good mood when they left their apartment, but he still worried that she was not ready. It seemed like a good idea._

_Fallon had been the happiest he had seen her in weeks earlier that evening. She had put on her brand-new floor-length emerald dress that reminded him so much of the one she was wearing the first time they kissed, and she looked just as stunning as she did then._

_As they were getting ready, Liam had caught her questioning her choice while she looked in the mirror, looking at the tight fit of the emerald dress, realizing it enhanced perfectly what was left of her small baby bump._

_Only 10 days had gone by and she could still see it. It was the first time she was putting on something so revealing since she had started showing, and Liam had to assure her that she could only see it because she knew it was there. No one else would notice, he promised._

_That seemed to have been enough. Fallon had moved on; loosely curling her own hair into a cascade of light brown waves that fell down her back and putting on a dark crimson red lip that complemented nicely her signature cat-eye._

_Liam loved every second of watching her get ready to go out. He missed that bright part of her, and he finally got to see that spark in her eyes again. However, he also knew how quickly things changed, and how one moment they could be feeling on top of the world, only to feel the carpet be pulled off from under their feet just in the moment after._

_Hopefully she was just distracted somewhere, he thought again._

_“Another one!” Fallon shouted at the bartender as she finished what was already her sixth glass of alcohol. He sighed, stopping to look at her already wasted figure, leaning over the bar’s counter. “Here. Take my card!” Fallon shouted again, taking her credit card from her clutch and throwing it to the other side of the counter, despite it being an open-bar event._

_“The last one.” The bartender told her as he placed another glass in front of her and picked up the black and gold credit card from the floor to hand it back to her. “Try not to lose this.”_

_“You should probably take it easy; don’t you think?” Fallon heard the familiar voice that she recognized all too well, approach her from behind, and didn’t even bother taking her eyes off the drink that she had just been given._

_“Leave me alone!” Fallon shouted at the older woman when, from the corner of her eye, she saw her take the empty seat next to hers. Great, that was just what she needed._

_“Shouldn’t you be celebrating with your husband?” Laura asked, looking up and down at Fallon as she analyzed exactly how drunk she was. Laura would have expected Fallon to be thriving on her husband’s success, but no, instead there she was just sitting there, vulnerable enough to be poked and prodded as much as she desired, to lead her to put on a show Liam certainly wouldn’t be able to forget._

_“Ugh.” She groaned before taking another sip of what was now, her seventh drink. “What do you want?” Fallon asked, finally turning her head to face her mother-in-law who, in all honesty, just looked like a giant blur to her._

_“I just thought it was weird to see you here all alone.” Laura said, looking around the room, noticing how some people were already staring at Fallon’s compulsive drinking rhythm and loud angry replies._

_The boss’s wife. Everyone knew her. It was all everyone could talk about. Fallon Carrington Ridley, young, beautiful, married to a billionaire, CEO of her own company at the age of 27 and… getting completely wasted on the bar by herself._

_It really wasn’t a good look for any of them. If the Van Kirks didn’t like Fallon, this certainly wouldn’t help her in any way._

_“Maybe I want to be alone!” She yelled again at Laura, making a few people stop what they were doing to look at the scene in the bar. “How about you let me be alone?”_

_“I just don’t want you to ruin my son’s party…” Laura whispered, getting closer to Fallon as she discreetly tried to get a hold of the glass that she had in front of her. It would be so easy for her to make Fallon throw a tantrum in the 5-star hotel bar if she wished so, Laura thought._

_“Me?” Fallon scoffed, grabbing the glass before Laura could get to it, taking it to her lips again. “Why do you even care?” Fallon asked, roughly placing the glass on the counter again. “It’s not like you even care about what makes Liam happy!” She continued, now turning her entire body towards Laura, the effect of the alcohol bringing out all the anger she had hidden inside her and making her mother-in-law back away. “You have hurt him time after time! And you didn’t even come to the wedding after I told you how important it was for him!” Fallon said enraged, the loudness drawing some more people’s attention as she finished her drink with one big gulp, leaving behind a numbing feeling in her throat._

_“Now, I think it’s better if you control your tone and stop drinking.” Laura warned her, already on the brink of her patience with Fallon. “You are putting on a show and embarrassing all of us!”_

_“You are always offending him and discarding his feelings!” Fallon kept shouting, completely immersed in her emotions, not even bothering with her growing audience as more and more people stopped to see what was happening between the two most important women in Liam Ridley’s life. “You are a monster, Laura!”_

_Thankfully, between the people that where now aware of what was happening, was Melissa, who unlike the other people that just quietly observed the scene while gossiping and snapping the occasional picture of Fallon’s altered state, actually did something to help._

_Not wasting another second, Melissa ran through the crowd of people, and then around the multiple tables where dinner had been served, in the stage’s direction hoping to find Liam as quickly as possible. If there was someone capable of solving that mess and handle both Laura Van Kirk and Fallon smoothly, it was him._

_“Liam! Liam!” Melissa said a little out of breath as she finally spotted Liam making small talk with one of VKI’s investors. “It’s Fallon.” She didn’t need to say anything else before Liam knew it was serious, causing him to jump off his chair and walk towards the redhead woman immediately, not even bothering to explain to the business shark what was happening._

_“What’s wrong?” he asked, getting closer to talk directly into Melissa’s ear, hopefully loud enough to overpower the crowded room’s background noise._

_“She is at the bar. Completely drunk, Liam, and in a fight with your mother. I didn’t know what to do!” That’s when he knew it was bad. Or least, a lot worse than he had expected. Of course, she was drinking. How could he have ever left her alone? He absolutely should have kept a closer eye on her. He couldn’t believe it. She had been suffering in silence and it had totally just gone over his head._

_“Oh, God. Okay.” He breathed out, hoping he would get there before things between his mother and Fallon got physical. He knew his mother, and she would certainly take advantage of the situation to play the victim part she liked so much. “Take me to them, please!” he said before she just nodded and took off as fast as she had arrived, just occasionally looking back to make sure she didn’t lose Liam in the swarm of people._

_“There.” Melissa said, pointing to the two women by the bar, a group of people standing by casually, forming a small barrier as they just waited to see what would happen between the mother and daughter-in-law, like it was a special episode of their favorite reality tv show._

_“Thank you.” He said sincerely, pulling off a sad smile to give Melissa. “I’ll handle it from here.” Liam said, taking a deep breath before he rushed to stop Fallon as she tried to get up to get her hands on Laura. “Enough.” He said, jumping in front of Fallon, his body acting as a barrier as she crashed against his chest, the sound of his deep low tone making Fallon become aware of his presence._

_“You don’t deserve him!” Fallon shouted over Liam’s shoulder, as more and more people took pictures of the incident. “You are an awful mother, and you don’t deserve to have a son like Liam!” she yelled again as Liam tightened the grip that he had on her as Fallon fought to get up from the bar stool._

_“Oh. Good.” Laura shook her head, pretending she had not just insulted both Fallon and Liam right before her son’s arrival. “You came to see your wife’s sad little show?” Laura said, gesturing around the room at the standing audience and even glancing into a few cameras. “That’s right! So much hatred.” Laura continued in a fake sad tone. “My daughter-in-law just won’t accept she is not the only woman in my son’s life...” Laura said to everyone who wanted to hear._

_“Stop!” Liam yelled, wrapping his arms protectively around Fallon as to shield her from all the unwanted attention they were getting. “Leave her alone, please.” He whispered, looking back at his mother as he cradled Fallon’s head against his chest, hoping that keeping her close to him would calm her down. “Enough! Show’s over! Everyone out!” he yelled at the crowd, keeping Fallon behind him as he made sure people were actually following his instructions._

_“I was just worried about her!” Laura defended herself, getting up from the bar stool and adjusting her outfit. Her job was clearly done, she could go now._

_“You little bitch!” Fallon screamed angrily. “You don’t need to worry about me!”_

_“Fallon.” Liam said in a serious tone, pulling her body away from his to make her look directly at him for the first time since he had stepped between her and his mother. It didn’t take him more than a few seconds to notice the blank staring she had. All their natural shine gone. She was far from okay and more than anything else, it broke him to see her like that. “What are you doing?” he whispered, trying to fight the tears himself. “Why did you leave Mel?”_

_“I wanted to have some drinks.” She explained calmly, followed by a chuckle. “I can finally drink again!” she yelled in a mock celebratory way._

_She didn’t understand. She had been careful. She had not drunk a single drop of alcohol since she had found out she was pregnant. Or really, since she even suspected she was. It had been hard to say no to alcohol during all their dinner dates after they came back from their honeymoon. But she didn’t want to do anything that could harm their baby. She would have given up anything._

_“Remember?” It was too much. How could he not see it? Too much, too soon. “I can drink all I want!” she laughed out loud, getting a few more glances from people nearby. “I can have fun!” she exclaimed as she finally stopped to look at him, her sarcastic laugh turning into a pout that mirrored the one Liam had on his face as he just stared back at her, hurting too much to even speak._

_There wasn’t much he could say. Honestly, he really didn’t know what to do about it._

_He knew she longed for numbness. That’s what she had told him the last time she had done it. She just wanted to forget it._

_He had considered it too. Use something to help him forget, and while he was sure it would be a nice temporary relief, he knew it wouldn’t help. He needed to be strong for the both of them. And that was what he was gonna do now._

_“Come here. It’s okay.” He finally said, placing a kiss on her forehead before leaning forward to pull her into a tight hug, not sure each one of them needed it more. “Let’s go, okay? Let’s go home.”_

_“Why?” she whined, resisting his help to get up from the bar stool, just looking over at the other side of the large room where Laura and part of the Van Kirk clan watched how Liam handled her from afar. “It’s so early! The party just got started, Liam!”_

_“Come on, let’s go…” he said, reinforcing the strength with which he pulled her from the seat, already pondering if it would be easier just to carry her out._

_“I don’t want to go…” she whined but finally gave in and got up, immediately wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes as he just held her. “I wanna dance with you…” she whispered softly in his ear, feeling a single tear fall down her face._

_“Hey.” Melissa started as she approached the couple. “I see everything is calmer around here.” Melissa said as Fallon slowly swayed her body in Liam’s arms, completely ignoring her presence. “Don’t worry, I got some of the people that were taking photos and your grandmother already asked Mercedes to run our full damage control protocol.”_

_Damage control. Liam wasn’t even sure he wanted to know what that entailed. That’s what his family was worried about. The damage. That’s what they were so busy discussing from the corner of the room._

_“Gigi asked if you want to take her to a room upstairs. She can get you a suite right away and someone to look after her.” Melissa explained as Liam kept rubbing Fallon’s back in soothing circles that he was sure would soon lead her to fall asleep standing against him if they didn’t move._

_As if he would ever lock his wife in a hotel room to keep the party going downstairs. No way. His family clearly didn’t know him, or how much he loved Fallon._

_“No. I’m taking her home.” He said firmly, looking at the Van Kirks gathered in the corner. He wouldn’t even dare to speak to them right now. “Please tell everyone we’re leaving.”_

_“Is everything okay?” Melissa whispered, not meaning to be nosey. She had not spent a lot of time with Liam over the years, but he could tell from the way he protected Fallon that he had reasons to. Melissa could tell there was something going on. They were newlyweds. They were supposed to be over the moon happy, not drinking themselves into oblivion at a party._

_“No…” Liam replied sincerely. “I’m sorry. Thank you for helping and… Please thank Elliott for the party.” He sighed, tightening his grip on Fallon’s waist to make sure she was secure enough before he tried to get her to perk up again._

_“Of course.” Melissa said with a shy smile. She could tell he didn’t want to talk about it any further. “Take care of her.”_

_“I will.” Liam nodded, pulling his phone out of his pocket to tell Albert to bring the car over to get them. “Babe.” He said, gently pulling her body away from him to avoid have her fall asleep on him. “Can you walk?” he whispered to Fallon who just nodded. “C’mon, I will help you.” He said, putting an arm around her for support as they slowly made their way towards the exit._

_Liam felt an immediate relief as they went through the large front door of the hotel and the fresh New York spring night breeze hit their bodies. They were free. Now he was just hoping no one would follow them outside._

_“Oh, Fal…” he muttered as she tried to kiss him, and Liam felt the strong scent of alcohol in her breath. “Never do this again…” he whispered as Fallon cuddled up against him as they waited near the valet for their car to pick them up._

_“Here.” He said, taking off his jacket and placing it over her shoulders after noticing her subtle trembling under his touch. “Don’t want you to get a cold.” He said, running his hand over arm to keep her warm._

_“Where are we going?” she asked in a secretive whisper. It almost felt like a game to her. A fun getaway even. She was already too out of a loop, but she seemed calm. At least he wasn’t dealing with crazy-angry-drunk Fallon, he thought. It could be worse._

_“We are going home.” He said somberly, watching Fallon’s signature pout appear on her face again._

_“But the party just got started.” She whined again._

_“Yeah, it did, but—" he was just about to say when she cut him off._

_“Forget your mom, Liam!” she yelled again, before his change in expressions made her realize she might have been too loud. “We were…” she choked on her words, starting to get emotional. “We were having fun...” She said, mostly trying to convince herself. “We were fine, Liam. This was your party.”_

_“You can’t keep doing this, Fallon…” he whispered, gently caressing her fluttered warm cheek with the back of his hand. “We talked about it, remember?” he asked softly knowing she was too drunk to fully process what he meant. Now was not the time to have that talk. “We’ll go home and rest, okay?” And there it was, the sound of the engine he knew so well. “Hi Albert.” He said as the older man got out of the black BMW to open the doors for them._

_“Mr. Ridley. Mrs. Ridley.”_

_“That’s us.” Fallon said, perking right up. “I’m Mrs. Ridley.” She stated proudly as Albert opened the door and Liam helped her get into the backseat of the car._

_“Do you have a bag or something?” Liam asked, closing the car’s door after clipping on Fallon’s seatbelt._

_“Of course, sir.” Albert said, going into the car’s trunk and taking out a plastic bag from one of the emergency kits he always kept on hand. It wasn’t Albert’s first-time driving drunk Van Kirks around after parties. He knew the drill and he was always prepared. “Going home?”_

_“Yes, please.” Liam said along with a sigh of relief. He couldn’t wait for them to be in bed and for that night to be officially over._

_“Albert, can you believe Liam wanted to leave the party this early?” Fallon asked, a yawn escaping her mouth as the man took the wheel and started driving them home. “Can you believe? Everyone was there. The band was actually good…” she rambled in muffled sentences, leaning her body over the middle seat to rest her head on Liam’s shoulder. “And you could drink all you wanted…”_

_“That does sound great.” The man said simply, discreetly watching the couple through the mirror as Liam kissed his wife’s head, keeping her close to him the entire ride home. “We are here, sir.” The man said as he parked in their building’s garage right by the elevator’s entry. “Do you need help getting upstairs?” Albert asked Liam, opening the door for Fallon and extending his hand for her to take._

_“I think we will be okay.” Liam said, going around the car to hold on to his wife. “Thank you, Albert.” Liam smiled in appreciation as the man only let go of Fallon once Liam was safely holding her. The worst part was over. Gladly they had an elevator that would take them right to their door._

_“Goodbye, Albert!” Fallon said gleefully as the man got back in the car and they headed towards the elevator. Getting home had never felt so good. After struggling to open the door, they walked in together through the wide door before Liam just carelessly kicked it close._

_“C’mon, help me here, Fallon.” He told his wife as they started going up the stairs and Fallon almost rolled her ankle while on her 5-inch heels. “C’mon, babe, just a few more steps and you can lie down.”_

_“It’s just stairs.” She sighed, as they took the last steps and finally reached the top floor safely. Already tired because of the long effort that took taking her home in one piece, Liam kneeled to the floor, helping her get rid of her heels, which would certainly make their trip down the hallway a lot easier._

_“C’mon, let’s get you to bed.” he exhaled once they finally go to their bedroom and Liam wasted no time in getting Fallon ready for bed._

_“Don’t!” she whined, pushing him away as she felt his hands reach for the zipper on the back of her dress._

_“I just want to help you take off your dress.” He explained, looking her in the eyes. She looked scared. Maybe, she felt vulnerable. Ashamed, even. “Let me unzip it for you.” It had been a while since the last time he got to do it for her._

_She had been distant. She would only take his affection with limits Liam had never gotten from her before. He didn’t know when he was getting his wife back and that scared him._

_“Can I?” he asked, getting a shy little nod of approval from her. The zip opened, and her emerald dress dropped to the floor, revealing her bare chest. A sight Liam hadn’t seen in weeks. “It’s okay… Let me put this on you.” He said, grabbing one of his plain white shirts and sliding it over her head, feeling guilty to even look at his wife’s breasts as he did so. His mission was almost complete. Pulling the bed covers over her, Liam made sure Fallon rested comfortably against a generous amount of fluffy silk pillows that surrounded her body completely._

_“My makeup…” she whined, trying to get up to complete her religious night regime, which made a small smile show on Liam’s lips. She never slept in her makeup. No matter what they were doing, where they were or what time it was. Apparently, being drunk wasn’t an excuse either._

_“It’s okay. Rest.” He whispered, bending down to kiss her cheek. “I promise I will take off your makeup when I come back.”_

_“No…” she whined again, looking back at him as she tried to reach for his arm to make him stay. She had no luck; he had already gone into the bathroom, coming back a few seconds later to kneel at her bedside._

_“Fallon. You got a bucket here if you need to puke, okay?” she just nodded her head, closing her eyes as the comfort of her bed was letting sleep win her over. “I’m going downstairs to get you a bottle of water and some food for your hangover tomorrow morning. Don’t get up!”_

_“Don’t go…” she whined again, extending her arm in a desperate fear of being left by herself in the dark room, only lit by the city lights coming through the open window._

_“I’ll be back soon. I will take off your makeup and we will cuddle for a while…” He whispered, placing a kiss on her forehead before adjusting the covers around her body. “C’mon, close your eyes…”_

****

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝚅𝙺𝙸 𝙲𝙾𝙽𝙵𝙴𝚁𝙴𝙽𝙲𝙴 𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼. 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺. - 𝙰𝙵𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙽𝙾𝙾𝙽. 𝙵𝚁𝙸𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙰𝚄𝙶𝚄𝚂𝚃 𝟻𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

“Since when has competition been a limiting factor for VKI?” Laura yelled, getting up in a fury of rage from where she was sitting. She couldn’t believe the incompetence.

“It’s not all about competition!” Ophelia yelled back, quickly reading through the papers on the table in front of her once again. “There are other sights we could be looking at! We don’t need to go into legal battles over a simple piece of land that is about to be sold to someone else!”

“That’s what we have a legal team for!” Laura yelled once again, pacing around the room while she tried to come up with a strategy to deal with the mess Louis and Jamison had got them into. “Money is not a problem and we don’t compromise on quality! Never!” Fallon had seen her mother-in-law mad before, but never like that. She kind of admired it. She respected a woman that could make herself heard in a boardroom. She knew it wasn’t easy, but Laura had it all under control, and if she disliked something, she would make herself heard.

“That piece of land was carefully picked for the project and it was determined to be the best. All the studies and plans were made for that specific piece of land and we would waste a lot more money redoing everything than actually try to stop the sale!” Laura said, finally stilling herself by Liam’s side as he finished revising all the paperwork.

“Laura is right.” Fallon couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth. “But now it’s not the time to point fingers. Clearly someone messed up…” They all knew who, but like Fallon said, it was not time to point fingers at each other. “But there is still a chance we can buy it, and that’s what we should be focusing on. The sight of the project is probably the most crucial part.”

“Yes. Nathan and I looked over the numbers again and we could up our offer a little if needed.” Liam added. “This is not just another simple project. This will be a valuable addition to a growing community. A new hospital, a top edge research institute, a learning center. We are talking about thousands of new jobs and a range of new resources the community doesn’t have access to right now!” That was something Liam liked about business. It was actually deeper than them just making more money on top of the extreme amounts of money they already had. It was about doing something that actually had an extraordinary impact on the lives of thousands, even millions of people.

“Like Fallon said, the location is crucial. We are not giving up on it.” He said, looking back at his mother to reassure her. “We need to find a way to make it work.”

“What if we can’t?” Ophelia asked.

“That’s not the attitude we need right now.” Liam started, getting up to assert himself in the room. “Instead of keeping attacking Jamison and Louis,” There. He said what everyone else already knew. This was all their fault. “We need to start thinking how we can fix this issue. We are only focused on that right now. We need to stop that sale and get the land! Talk to the mayor, our senators, hell, even the president! I don’t care!” Damn. That was hot, Fallon thought, completely lost in her dirty thoughts as Liam kept talking business. “We are not looking at second options. So, get on it!”

“I will schedule a meeting with the lawyers again.” Ophelia said, finally admitting defeat.

“I want to be present this time.” Laura added quickly. She didn’t trust any of them to get it right. If she wanted the job well done, she knew she would be the one to do it. “It shouldn’t be this hard to work this out…” She sighed, finally sitting down for a second. “And there will be consequences!” she said, loud and clear to make sure everyone heard.

“Mom, please…” Liam whispered as everyone calmed down and went back to typing steadily on each of their individual laptops. There was a lot to be done and checked before they could leave.

“Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.” Fallon said, quickly reaching for her phone to stop the annoying alarm. At first, she was confused as to what it could possibly be at that time in the afternoon. That was until she tapped on the screen and saw the notification on the very top. She looked over at Liam and he knew immediately what it was.

“I will take care of the repercussions for the people responsible for this later.” Liam started calmly. “Now, it’s time for a break. We all need it.” Everyone needed it, especially he and Fallon that had some very important side-business to attend to. “25 minutes. Everyone, go out, get some air, some food… We will start the presentations that I asked for after the break.” He didn’t need to say it twice before most of the Van Kirks got up and left the room.

“Ophelia!” Laura yelled, going after her former sister-in-law as she left the room.

“No fighting!” Liam shouted, knowing how easily conversations between his mother and his aunt could turn into full blown fights. “I can’t believe this mess…” he said as soon as it was just him and Fallon in the room.

“It will be okay, honey.” She said, reaching for his hand. “This is what the lawyers are for and we have a great team of lawyers. You are doing the best you can right now.”

“Next month will be wild, and we are going away for 2 weeks… How am I supposed to relax in Greece with everything that’s happening here?” he said, throwing the folder he was reading from to a pile of identical ones in the middle of the table.

“I will tell you what you have told me endless times in the last few years: in between goals, there is a thing called life. Don’t forget to live it.” Quality time off was exactly what they both needed. Everything had VKI was falling apart and Liam had been more stressed out than ever; with the book launch coming soon, the company and Fallon’s very strict sex schedule, he was exhausted. “We are going on vacation, enjoy those two weeks away and I promise that when we come back, things here will be okay. The company will still be standing.”

“Yeah, but you also know that a CEO’s work is different.” Liam said and she smiled, remembering the endless times she had told him the exact same thing.

“Your mom is taking care of it. Your grandma will represent you, and they are more than capable of handling it. It’s just two weeks.” Liam knew she was right. Regardless of if he was in town or not, his mother was gonna make sure she got that whole mess taken care of. “Your only job will be to just live your best life with me in Greece.”

“When did you become the one to ask me to let go of work?”

“I just want you well rested for when we come back.” Oh boy, and did she have plans for when they came back. Her recent online shopping history was a little insane, but Fallon knew it would be totally worth it. Liam desperately needed to relax and as his wife she intended to throw him a book launch party, and _afterparty_ , that he wouldn’t be able to forget.

“I was thinking… Since you are doing the book release here and we have a lot going on with VKI at the moment, and pretty much until the project really takes off… There will be a lot to catch up when we come back from Greece… I was thinking we could spend the month of September here.” Honestly, he was surprised. An entire month? Well, it was certainly better than the constant travelling back and forth, he thought. At least they would be together.

“An entire month?”

“We can bring June and Neve with us, and not worry about travelling here each time some new drama emerges. I will help with VKI so you can focus on your book launch and on the promotion of the book afterwards, you know... enjoy your inevitable success…”

“Now that you mention that.” He doubted she would say no but he still needed to make the formal invitation. “I was talking to Vera about the launch earlier today, and... I told her I want you to be the one to give the presentation speech at the book launch. Is that okay?”

“Oh.” That was special. The last time she had done something remotely similar to that had been as his publisher for The Biggest Payday, which Fallon still loved the most out of all his books. She probably always would. “Yeah, I can do that. I love the book so it will be easy, but…” And there was a ‘but’. “You still haven’t told me how this idea came to you. That would be helpful to know for when I'm writing my speech.”

“That’s not relevant for your presentation, Fallon.” He was still trying to come up with the best timing to sit down with her and tell her all about the real story that inspired the book.

“But you promised you would tell me when the book was done…”

“And I will.” Maybe the day of the launch, he thought. “At the right time, Fal.”

"I don't understand all this secrecy.”

“Do you wanna go eat something?” he asked, getting up and pulling her with him as he tried to change the subject. However, instead of getting a yes or no from Fallon, Liam got her phone’s screen right on his face as she made sure he saw the notification that she had received earlier.

“Oh. I see… What do you want to do about that?” He asked with a smirk on his face as they kept walking towards the elevator in the lobby. He knew exactly what she wanted to do about that. He had certainly noticed her foot work under the conference room table, not to mention she didn’t even bother being discreet about how hungrily she stared at him during the meeting. Gladly, everyone else was too stressed to even notice their unspoken flirting. “You are not hungry?”

“I am, but… I’m hornier, actually.” she whispered, slipping her hand inside his pants’ pocket, her new favorite office trick.

“Are you?” He said, looking down at his pants briefly before he pushed the elevator’s button. He really liked this new trick of hers, and he was kind of in the mood to test how far she would go in an office filled with people.

“You know this businessman in you awakens parts of me I can’t control.” He knew, but he could feel it too as her fingers got closer and closer to his center.

“Well, we are going for an afternoon delight. I heard they have peach pie today.” he said as the elevator doors opened and he walked in, leaving her and her hand behind. “They must have known you were coming.” he said with a wink as Fallon quickly got inside the elevator before the doors closed.

They were going all the way down to the large ground level cafeteria. Yep. That was definitely the kind of afternoon delight Fallon was craving.

“There is a bathroom just down the hallway.” She whispered as she felt him get closer and closer behind her, until the bulge in his pants was directly in contact with the back of her dress.

“Oh… No...” he whispered in her ear. “Last time, you didn’t even want to take the pregnancy test in a VKI bathroom but now you want to go make our baby in there?” They were going downstairs for peach pie. That was it.

“It was more that I didn’t want to find out in the middle of a meeting.” she breathed out as she felt his hand get dangerously lower and lower on her dress, until it got to the other side of the fabric, his fingertips running teasingly from her thighs to her ass cheeks and sending a shiver down her spine.

“We can do it here.” he suggested, lightly squeezing her ass as he slowly grinded his body against her. “I can press the emergency button and we can stop the elevator and get it done.” he breathed out against her neck. Walking out of that elevator would certainly be interesting considering the hard-on he was sporting.

“Liam—” She held her breath, feeling his fingers slowly pushing her underwear to the side. “There are cameras here, Liam…” she finally breathed out, trying her best not to give into his touch. Even if she really wanted him to slide his fingers inside her.

“Oh, getting shy now?” he said, glancing at the side of the elevator, only to realize that they were about to arrive at their destination. “If there weren’t any cameras would you do it?” he asked, removing his hand from inside her dress and quickly taking off his jacket to cover the bulge on the front of his pants, as the elevator doors opened to a busy lobby.

“You know I would.” She said firmly, as they walked out of the elevator, hand in hand, as if nothing had happened. “We could forget about it and go eat that peach pie you mentioned…” she said, gazing down at the jacket hiding the visible tightness of Liam’s pants. “Or… We can get in that elevator again and head to your office.” She stopped them in the middle of the busy lobby.

“Why does it always have to be my office?” he sighed, not bothering even giving her an answer before they were marching back to the elevator, his decision being pretty clear as he pressed the elevator’s button again.

“You have that big couch I like...” Apparently, they weren’t wasting any time. Sex was out of bounds, but Fallon never said there couldn’t be any foreplay in the elevator, so he got to it.

Liam dropped the jacket to the floor, trapping Fallon against the elevator mirror wall and attaching his lips to hers before she resumed their previous conversation. “I love to ride you on that couch… It’s so…” Fallon panted as Liam’s lips moved from her mouth to suck on her neck, making her feel a heat rise within her. “…hot.”

“But… Think about it…” he whispered. “Imagine conceiving boss baby on top of mommy’s desk…” he groaned as she palmed him through the fabric of his suit. “I think that would be a funny story to tell our child one day.”

“We are not telling our baby about that, Liam.” she said, pushing him off of her as she realized the elevator had stopped and in a matter of seconds its doors would open again. “Don’t forget your jacket.” She pointed to the floor before walking out of the elevator in a rush towards his office. “Go in, daddy.” she said under her breath so only he could hear her.

“We have an important meeting online. It’ll be quick but we don’t want to be bothered.” he told his secretary right before he followed Fallon inside and shut the door behind him close. She knew what that meant. It was coffee break time for her.

“C’mon, time is running out.” Fallon said impatiently, kicking her heels to the side before she sat down in the big blue couch Liam had in his office. “Lock the door and come here now.” He loved the rush more than anything else. It felt like they were doing something illegal. And he liked it. It certainly fueled his excitement. Just as her sharp demands did.

Before he could even make it to the couch, he had already removed his belt, throwing it on the floor, which he knew Fallon would appreciate. Nothing frustrated her more than when she struggled to get his belt open. The most annoying barrier to what she wanted.

“Come here.” she said, pulling him towards her and instantaneously reaching for the zipper in his pants, pulling them down to his knees in one go. “You have 10 minutes to get it done.” she said, cupping him through his underwear and feeling how hard he already was underneath it, before she got the white Calvin Kleins out of the way too. “Here.” She pushed his body against the couch and watched as his hand immediately reached for his standing tall erection and he furiously stroked himself in anticipation.

Finally. She had him exactly how she wanted.

Straddling him on that blue couch was more instinctive than Fallon could put into words. They fitted perfectly between the soft cushions and Fallon loved to reach her climax while overlooking the city from his lap. Following the usual procedures, she pulled her tight dress up, and holding her underwear to the side, Fallon looked between their bodies as Liam lined himself up with her entrance.

“So wet already, babe…” he groaned as he rubbed his tip against her center, teasingly dipping it inside her a few times before she decided to make the final move.

“Now, remember…” he groaned, the sound accompanied by a deep moan from Fallon, once she finally sank herself down on him, rocking her hips a little to adjust to having him deep inside her. “You gotta be quiet. There are people out there.” He knew she wouldn’t be.

“You be quiet, Ridley!” she said, shutting him up with a kiss before she started moving her hips up and down frantically, holding onto his shoulder as she built up the rhythm of her steady deep thrusts.

“I wish I could see your boobs…” he panted while trying to dip his head inside the cleavage of her dress after Fallon stilled herself as she did every few thrusts to work on her Kegels as she gently rocked her hips back and forth in his lap. “Let me help you, gorgeous…” Liam whispered, slipping his hand between them so his thumb could reach her clit after he realized how desperately she was grinding against him. “It’s okay… I’m here…” he said, as his thumb reached Fallon’s bundle of nerves and she clang onto him, digging her nails into the back of his shirt, already feeling the start of her orgasm creeping up on her.

* * *

####  **𝙸𝙽𝚃. 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙸𝙰𝙼'𝚂 𝙱𝙰𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙾𝙾𝙼. 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺. - 𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶. 𝙵𝚁𝙸𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙹𝚄𝙻𝚈 𝟹𝚁𝙳, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟶.**

_Liam had no idea how they had ended up like that, but he wouldn’t trade waking up with his head between her breasts for anything else in the world. He loved everything about it: the softness of her skin, the gentle scent of her night cologne and the familiar warmth of her body, all providing him with an unmatched waking up experience._

_Fallon had not completely closed the curtains the night before so, even though it was only 6 am, their bedroom had already some of the busy city’s sunlight coming through the large glass wall that overlooked Manhattan. It was enough light for him to sit back against the headboard and admire her as she slept._

_Even though they slept together every night, and Fallon had recently been warming up to his touch again, he still missed her. It took him back to the time after they first started dating. How she insisted on waiting for their first time and how frustrating it was for both of them when their make out sessions were always interrupted as soon as things started to get too heated. That was what it was like now._

_52 days. That’s how long it had been. It was not like he was counting, really._

_Liam couldn’t wait for the day he could wake her up again like he knew she loved so much; his mouth salivating just as he thought about it. For example, right now, it would have been the perfect occasion, Liam thought as he observed the way her body was sprawled across the bed, giving him just enough room to get to work._

_But he knew he couldn’t do it, nor did he want to. Their little morning fun agreement didn’t apply to their current situation._

_However, the more he thought about the forbidden fruit, the more his frustration grew, along with the hardness of the member between his legs; an innate reaction to Fallon and all the memorable early morning moments they had shared over the time they have been together._

_Before Liam could even become aware of it, his hand had slipped inside his boxers and his fingers were wrapped around his length, making him let out a heavy sigh at the feeling. He didn’t want to wake her up, but he just couldn’t stop either._

_This had just become part of his new routine. He always got up, careful not to disturb Fallon, then, he hurried to get to the bathroom so he could drop all the clothes he had on his body, already feeling the heat growing within him, and desperately needing to find some relief to his morning excitement._

_It was okay. He knew the drill. He could take care of it himself._

_Tapping at the digital display of their shower, Liam selected the perfect temperature and showering modes, not wasting any time before getting under water. In a few minutes, he would get his much-needed relief and he would be able to go back to bed to cuddle with Fallon. It would be okay._

_He had lost the count of the times he had done it. He grabbed her bottle of body wash, and taking a bit into his hand, he smelled it. That was exactly what she smelled like when he woke up with his head right by her chest._

_That was the smell he wanted to think about as he stroked himself. That was all he could think about. He closed his eyes, letting his mouth open slightly and throwing his head back as his left arm moved almost in slow motion, trying to mimic the best he could how she did it._

_In fact, Liam was so focused on replicating the exact same movements that he didn’t even notice when Fallon entered the bathroom. She knew what she would find. She knew what he did every morning, but she had never been brave enough to go in the bathroom and watch him, afraid that she wouldn’t be able to resist him._

_But today, she didn’t want to resist. She was giving in. It was the second night in a row she had dreamt about sex with him. Her husband. She shouldn’t be dreaming about sex with her husband; she should be having sex with him instead, and that’s when she decided to take it as a sign that she was ready._

_At least, ready enough. As ready as she would ever probably be, and damn, did she miss him…_

_She was done feeling sorry for herself or feeling like she couldn’t fully enjoy sex again; the fear of getting pregnant again still lingering at the back of her mind. But she wanted to feel good, and Liam had promised he would gladly help her with that whenever she wanted._

_And there he was. Hard. Just for her. His low moans. The sounds he tried to keep to himself when she wasn’t there. His wet Greek-god-like muscular form underwater. Gorgeous. The man that had been patiently waiting for her. A gentleman. She could not resist him, nor did she want to._

_Stepping into the shower, Fallon got under their rainforest showerhead, hugging Liam from behind, resting her head on his shoulder before she attempted to replace his hand with hers._

_It took him a few seconds to realize he wasn’t dreaming. He looked down, finally opening his eyes to see Fallon’s perfectly manicured fingers wrapped around him. A feeling he couldn’t compete with as Fallon tightened the grip that she had on him and increased the speed of her wrist, sending a rush of adrenaline through his body and making him widen his stance to adjust to the unmatched pleasure._

_“Hi…” he breathed out, internally freaking out about what was happening, feeling like a virgin all over again; the growing excitement occasionally make him struggle to breathe. She was back. His wife was back._

_“Hi honey.” She whispered, placing a kiss on his shoulder as her hand moved forward, squeezing him slightly harder as it approached his tip. “I miss you.”_

_“Oh. Fuck.” He groaned as her thumb continuously moved in circles over the sensitive head. Needless to say, he missed her too. “Are you sure about this?” he asked, turning his body to face her to make sure she was indeed there, and he wasn’t just dreaming._

_“Yeah.” She nodded, her hand moving between them in slow, lengthy strokes as she looked him in the eyes. “I need you.”_

_“I know, babe… I do too.” He whispered back at her, gently nudging his nose against hers, taking one of his hands to run it through her wet hair as he pulled her into a passionate kiss._

_It had been a long time since they had been like that together underwater, and he really didn’t want to let go of her now. Her hand around him while their tongues battled each other; the taste of her mouth and the strong scent of her body wash, all making it very hard for him to let go of her lips. “I’m here.”_

_He had thought a lot about how their second first time would be. He had daydreamed about it; imagined it every morning as he jerked off in the shower as quietly as he could. He had been anxiously anticipating it, but his fantasies couldn’t compare to what he was feeling now that he actually had his wife that close to him again._

_“Are you not gonna touch me?” she asked shyly, holding one of his hands to place it between her legs where she desperately wanted to feel him again._

_Liam had been so enamored by the glimmering shine in her eyes and overwhelmed by the heated rush of blood in his groin that he couldn’t believe he had not even reached to touch her yet. However, after she asked, it didn’t take him any time for his fingers to part her lips and instantly immerse themselves in her wetness; the stickiness bringing his arousal up to levels he didn’t know existed. He was hungry for more._

_He pushed them in and out of her in a slow, steady pace, keeping his eyes on her as he watched as she bit her bottom lip and whimpered each time his fingers went as deep as he could reach. There they were. All the little sounds she made that were the gasoline to his desire._

_“I want a taste of you…” he whispered, sucking on her neck and drinking some of the warm water that ran through her skin._

_Lowering his kisses on her body, Liam went from sucking on her neck, to her collarbone, travelling to her boobs, where his lips insisted on leaving its mark, before he ran his tongue through her hardened nipples, knowing perfectly well that would be enough to send shivers down her spine; shivers he could feel when her walls suddenly clenched around his fingers._

_Fallon couldn’t believe how sensitive she was. The remaining withdrawals of the last almost two months, making her more and more vulnerable under his touch as she allowed her body to relax and enjoy the combined mastery of his tongue and fingers._

_“I love you… So much…” he whispered as his kisses and hungrily sucking jumped from her breasts to the pit of her stomach, forcing Fallon’s hands to stop their skilled job to hold tightly onto Liam’s hair as his mouth reached its final destination._

_“Liam—” she squealed as his lips went straight to suck on her clit, complementing nicely the feeling of his fingers, now moving at a combined rhythm with his mouth._

_Fallon felt her heart race and herself growing wetter and wetter as Liam’s tongue sneakily escaped in between sucks to lick her clean. She knew the feeling in the pit of her stomach all too well, along with the weakness she started to feel in her legs._

_“Liam. I need—” he knew exactly what she needed from the feeling of her nails digging into him and her whimpered cries between her uneven breaths. She was close and he knew she wouldn’t be able to stand through her orgasm. Thankfully, their shower had a wide granite bench that Fallon didn’t hesitate in using. Just like she had done many times before, she sat down, spreading her legs as she impatiently waited for Liam to continue where he had left off. And what a better position this was. Resting her back against the wall, Fallon’s fingers dived into Liam’s hair once again as he settled on his knees by her._

_“That’s it, babe…” Liam said, licking his lips as he ran his hands through her inner thighs, spreading them wider and admiring her swollen clit before bringing his mouth back to it, sucking on it even harder that before._

_“Li—am!” she screamed, squirming under his touch and involuntarily wrapping her legs around his body as he added his two fingers back in and took his free hand to one of her boobs, giving it a gentle squeeze each time he curled his fingers inside her._

_“Let go, Fal…” he panted, a little out of breath himself, as he pulled away from her to briefly enjoy the view of Fallon’s fluttered cheeks as she graciously arched her back off the wall once again._

_Before the proud smug smirk could fully form on Liam’s face, Fallon’s thrusted her hips forward and took her hands to his head, pushing it back towards her center as she felt too on the edge to be left uncared for longer than 2 seconds._

_Liam knew exactly what he had to do next. One more base until homerun._

_Curling the tips of his fingers and speeding them, Liam focused all his energy on sucking on her clit for as long as he could hold his breath, before lapping her with his tongue until he felt her legs tremble around his head and her walls spasming intensively around his fingers, gripping them so tightly that made it very hard for Liam to continue moving them throughout her orgasm._

_“Beautiful…” he whispered breathlessly, finally taking his mouth off her, and taking in the image of water hitting Fallon’s chest, frantically rising up and down as she panted through the aftermath of her climax. “I missed this so much…” he said while placing soft kisses in her inner thighs, giving her a little break before going back to lick her clean as he intended to do._

_“I want to feel you...” She said between whimpered moans as she enjoyed the oversensitivity of her core and the electricity running through her nerves as Liam finished his job. “I’m sorry, honey...” She said sincerely and Liam didn’t understand why. “I shouldn’t have kept you waiting for so long. I’m sorry.” Part of her felt guilty that she had denied him; them, really, that kind of pleasure for so long. It was like she was punishing the both of them for something that she knew they didn’t do._

_“You don’t have to apologize, sweetheart.” Liam said, getting back on his feet and going back to the thermostat display to lower the temperature of the water falling from the ceiling. That would certainly help him keep his cool for a while longer. “Come here. Let’s get you cleaned.” He poured some more of her body wash into his hand and waited for her to stand back up as well and walk towards him._

_“Are you gonna wash me?” she asked, turning her back to Liam as he wrapped his arms around her and both his hand immediately reached for her boobs, squeezing them slightly each time she grinded her ass against his standing erection. It took all his strength to remain still as he felt his dick, firm and hard, throbbing against his stomach as it longed to thrust into her as it hadn’t in so long._

_“I am…” He breathed out against her neck, as he tried to ignore the increasingly tight feeling in his balls as his dick slid between her thighs and ass cheeks, deciding to focus on taking his soapy hands to every single inch of her skin he could reach instead._

_“Just… please don’t come inside…” she whispered, reaching back to hold him in her hand again and align herself with him, leaving his tip just ready to enter her whenever he wanted._

_“Of course, babe…” he huffed back, setting his hands firmly on her waist before thrusting into her with a single roll of hips. He knew what this was about. She was still afraid of getting pregnant again. Even with the IUD in. “Don’t worry about that. I promise I will pull out.” he said, placing a kiss on her shoulder before going back to focus on his thrusts, making sure to set a good pace before he let his hands wonder again. He really had to focus if he wanted to keep his promise._

_“Harder—" She panted, gripping onto Liam’s arms as he held her in position against him, one hand between her legs and the other cupping one of her boobs, to make sure she was secured in his embrace as he sped up his hips, groaning at the sound of his hip bones slapping against her ass cheeks with each thrust. “There—” she huffed, spreading her legs a little wider as she leaned forward to enjoy the feeling of his tip rub against her g-spot, every time he entered her._

_“Oh. Fuck.” Liam mumbled, pulling out and letting go of Fallon as quickly as he could, to look down desperately between his legs. Seeing his erection throbbing and traces of precum leaking from its head, Liam closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down. That had been a close call._

_“Sorry, babe.” He whispered, exhaling once again to keep himself from ejaculating. Deciding he was gonna need some help, Liam went up to the shower display, he turned on one of the individual showerheads, selecting the coldest temperature he could, to turn out the flaming heat he felt, before he could go back to Fallon. “Come here... I’m good now.” He said, feeling his bones hurt from the extremely cold water he had poured on himself to counter the effect she had on him._

_“Let me help you…” Fallon said, her hand reaching for him again as she was about to get on her knees._

_“No, no…” Liam said, pulling her back up. He had a better idea. “Jump.” He ordered, slapping her ass and opening up his arms to catch her._

_“Are you sure, Liam?” He knew how much she loved it when he fucked her with her back against the wall. How she loved to feel trapped under him; how she climbed and clang herself to him when her orgasms took over, and he was left to fully support the weight of her body as the warm water kept pouring on both of them. It was like heaven to her, and that was something he wanted to see again._

_“Yeah. I’m fine. I can handle it. C’mon.” And she doesn’t hesitate. Propelling herself on his shoulder and wrapping her legs around his waist, Fallon finds the comfort of his arms again. And then the cold familiar feeling of the smooth tiles against her back as he moved towards the wall. “Did I ever tell you how beautiful you are?”_

_“I’m pretty sure you do every day.” She replied, adoring his facial features as he adjusted the weight of her body in his arms._

_He really never misses a day, Fallon thought. That had been a constant during all they had been through in the past couple months. No matter if Fallon refused to talk to him, or if they had just had a fight, Liam always made sure she knew how much he loved her._

_And in that moment, Fallon didn’t know if it was because it had been so long since they last had sex, if it was because she was still slightly shaken up from her previous orgasm, or if she was just extremely in love with her husband, but she let a few tears escape her eyes when he thrusted into her again, feeling a whirlwind of emotions she couldn’t contain within herself._

_“Good.” He said, placing a kiss on her lips. “I love you.” He makes sure to look her in the eyes every time he tells her, and that’s when he notices the tears coming out and mixing themselves with the water running down her face from the shower. “Did I hurt you? Is everything okay?” he asked, stilling their bodies completely._

_“Yeah, yeah, I’m still a little overwhelmed, that’s all…” She explained, scratching the back of his head as she analyzed his cute, worried expression. “It feels great. Keep going…” she said, moving her hips forward to meet his, before showing a little smile that would hopefully put his mind at ease. “I’m just feeling really lucky to have you. Don’t you dare tell anyone I cried about it.”_

_“Never. You are my tough girl.” He couldn’t help but smile at her confession. “I’m feeling lucky to have you too, by the way...” He replied, kissing her neck as her moans increased with each roll of hips. “C’mon, I know you are close…” he whispered, feeling the heels of her feet digging into his glutes as she frantically pushed her hips forward while looking for the additional friction that she needed to be taken over the edge._

_It got to a point she didn’t know what else to do. She just felt so overwhelmed; her heart rate increasing significantly after Liam deepened his thrusts, making her feel an intense heat rush that took over her body as Liam’s groans grew louder and echoed through her ears; his grip on her ass cheeks became tighter as his big muscular arms started showing its first signs of weakness._

_And then, the tingling feeling in the pit of her stomach became uncontrollable, making all her muscles tense up in anticipation for what was to come as Liam continued to whisper in her ear. “Relax, babe… I got you…”_

_Desperate and barely able to breathe, Fallon gathered all the strength she had to push her back off the wall and fall into his chest, hugging him tightly, as she finally paralyzed herself and enjoyed his sloppy thrusts through another orgasm._

_“Oh God. Fal.” Liam stilled himself, closing his eyes and throwing his head back as he relished on the feeling of her walls clenching around him, only focusing on the soft moans coming from right under his ear._

_And just like that, all that could be heard was the sound of their puffed breathing between the showers’ rainwater. As breathless and tired as they were, they could have stayed like that all morning. Liam’s arms would have endured anything to get her to stay that close to him all morning as they enjoyed the remaining subtle feeling of Fallon pulsating against Liam’s throbbing erection, completely still inside her._

_She felt the most peace she had felt in months. At least since the miscarriage. She had forgotten about everything while she was in his arms. For that moment, it was just the two of them in the world. No one else mattered, and she didn’t care about anything else._

_It was just her and Liam. Together. And damn, she just wished she could freeze that moment in time._

_However, it didn’t last long._

_“Fal, babe... I can’t—" Liam puffed, tightening his grip on her legs to lift her up so he could pull out in time. “You need to come down…” he breathed out, feeling generous amounts of precum slipping out of him as his despairing feeling to come only got stronger after Fallon shivered and he felt her suddenly tighten around him once again._

_He was on his very limit and it could not wait. He knew he physically wouldn’t be able to control it._

_“Fuck.” He blurted out, throwing his head back and closing his eyes as Fallon’s hand took over immediately after she was back on the floor. “Oh. That’s it. Feels so good!” He widened his stance, panting as his butt cheeks tightened involuntarily, finally feeling close to his release._

_“Let me take care of you, honey.” Fallon said, slowing down her hand to get on her knees in front of him, deciding to let her mouth handle the rest, and taking it as an opportunity to remind herself of how he tasted like._

_“Oh God. Fallon!” he screamed, feeling her warm tongue around him, and one of her hands cupping his balls, giving them a gentle squeeze every time he thrusted into her mouth. And just like that, Liam let go; not believing how incredible it felt to have her suck him until the very last drop. “I— Wow.” He breathed out, looking down at her devilish smile as she finally let go of him with one loud bop, clearly feeling proud of her job._

_“Was that good?” she asked, getting up for a salty kiss that she was certain he would love. “I think we can repeat that later…” she said, feeling an immense sense of relief. They were back, and it felt good. They would be okay._

_“We should probably actually get washed now, huh?” he laughed, tapping into the shower display to change the setting of the showerheads, switching from the big rainforest ceiling showerhead, into their both regular, individual ones. “I know this was something important for us.” It was never about sex. If it was just about sex, they wouldn’t have waited 52 days, and Liam knew that. “I’m proud of you, Fal…” he said as they both stepped under their individual showerheads._

_“Thank you for waiting.”_

_“Of course, babe. You are my wife. There is nothing more I want than to make sure you are comfortable and feel safe and loved.”_

* * *

####  **𝙴𝚇𝚃. 𝙿𝚁𝙸𝚅𝙰𝚃𝙴 𝚅𝙸𝙻𝙻𝙰. 𝙶𝚁𝙴𝙴𝙲𝙴. - 𝚂𝚄𝙽𝚂𝙴𝚃. 𝚂𝙰𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙳𝙰𝚈. 𝙰𝚄𝙶𝚄𝚂𝚃 𝟸𝟶𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸.**

The first thing Liam became aware of when he woke up in the lounge chair by the pool was the large white towel covering his naked body. Fallon must have put it over him to protect him from the sun, he thought.

He didn’t know how long he had been out, but by looking at the colors of the sky, he could tell it was already the end of the afternoon, as the soft hues of orange and pink had taken over the bright blue he remembered from before he fell asleep all cuddled up against Fallon, who was no longer in his arms.

However, in the midst of the deafening silence of their private Greek villa, he could distinguish the sound of water running and repeatedly hitting the rock floor, mixed with the soft sound of a song being hummed. Their outdoor shower. Of course. Better than sex by the pool was the shower outside afterwards. He just couldn’t believe she hadn’t asked him to join her.

He would anyways. Getting up, and not even bothering to cover up himself, Liam walked through the outdoor kitchen, knowing exactly what he would find when he turned the corner of the plain white corridor that led into the side courtyard. Regardless, he was left speechless and paralyzed as he stopped by the door frame to the shower and saw Fallon’s naked figure underwater, gently massaging her scalp.

A déjà vu.

Suddenly, it was as if his mind had travelled back in time. Although they were thousands of miles away from their house and this time, he had nothing he desperately needed to confront her with, seeing her like that, made something click underneath him.

It took him back to that time two years prior when he walked into their bathroom, determined to confront her about the pregnancy tests he had found in her office, only to be frozen when he saw water running down her body, his eyes searching for a hint of a bump that he was sure he could see. Just like he was now.

Maybe his mind was tricking him. He was sure his mind was tricking him. He really wished it wasn’t, but he could see a small prominence on her stomach. Just like last time.

“Are you thinking about joining me?” Fallon said as she became aware of his presence. The exact same words. It was as if she knew what he was thinking about. However, unlike what he done last time, he wouldn’t turn his back and leave her now. He was already naked; he might as well just join her.

“I love you…” he whispered behind her ear, his hands instantly drawn to run over her wet skin, gently caressing her stomach while he placed small kisses on her shoulder.

“You know it’s just food, right?” She whispered back to him, a small smirk appearing on her face as Liam’s hands froze on her abdomen. She had noticed. He didn’t think she would. “I’m just a little bloated.”

“I know.” He said, pausing his kisses and taking his hands away from her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything. It’s just…”

“It’s okay.” She laughed, turning her body to face him. “We still have a few more days until I’m supposed to get my period. Who knows…” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a kiss under the showerhead, “Maybe it’s more than that.”

“It’s just that when I saw you when I walked in… It took me back to that night I found out you were pregnant last time. Do you remember when you were in the shower and I walked in?” She did. Perfectly. She remembered every single detail from that night. The good and the bad.

“Yeah, not exactly a good night for us…” She whispered, resting her head on his shoulder. It had been a while since she had thought about that night. “I still regret hiding it from you for so long. I’m sorry, Liam.”

Two years later, Fallon still felt extremely guilty about it. He really didn’t deserve what she had done to him. He deserved to know. He deserved to have had the chance to be there with her when she heard the heartbeat. But he wasn’t. Liam had told her about a million times that he had forgiven her but mostly, Fallon still didn’t forgive herself.

“It’s okay. Things happened like they had to happen at the time. You learned from that. We both did, actually. It’s in the past and there is nothing you can do right now that can change that.” he said, pulling her wet hair back to be able to properly see her face. 

“Yeah, if I had any doubt when I married you, which I really didn’t… after that day…” she sighed, running her fingers through his wet hair. She had married a good man. One she never thought it was possible to find. “I knew. I knew you were able to do anything to fight for us. Even when you hated me…”

“I never hated you, Fal.” He wasn’t even sure that was something he could feel towards her. “I was mad and hurt. Obviously. But you are my wife and I love you…” He said, his kisses missing her mouth as he decided to kiss her nose, and cheeks, and finally her forehead.

“I love you too.” She closed her eyes, taking in the feeling of his lips all over her face, the water continuously running down their bodies and the warm summer breeze, still very much present at that time in the afternoon.

“But I really wasn’t expecting for you to be pregnant and not tell me.” He said and the calm of her expressions vanish, as an immediate tension built again between them. That was the last thing he wanted. “Our fight that night… That was not the story I wanted to tell our child one day.” He remembered the shift in his mind that night.

He had been angry and incredibly hurt that she had managed to hide a pregnancy from him for 3 weeks. He couldn’t understand why, but each time he raised his voice at her, he couldn’t help but feel guilty.

He had all the right in the world to be mad, he told himself at the time.

But she was so vulnerable, he remembered right after.

“And… you know how much I hate to see you cry.” Seeing her in tears had been the breaking point. That was not how he wanted to remember such an important moment in their relationship. He wanted to be able to tell their son or daughter that he was happy when he found out about them coming into the world. That was how it was supposed to be. A happy moment.

“Well, this time will be different…” Fallon assured him. “There will only be happy tears.”

“Lots of happy tears.” He added, capturing her lips in his once more. “I was thinking… It’s our last night here before we have to go back to New York, so maybe we could just stay here in the villa tonight. I think we have seen enough around. You have been a trooper by the way.”

He had warned her. If they were going to Greece, there was some sightseeing required. Non-wearing-heels type of sightseeing. And even if Fallon had fussed over it at first, she had loved every second of it. Her favorite part being when Liam told her a different Greek mythology tale every night. It was worth all the sweat and fashion sacrifices she had endured during the day.

“We could eat dinner under the stars, I will tell you about Eros and Psyche’s love story in the hammock, it’s a good one, and… Who knows, dive into our linen sheets for a quick trip to the moon…” he said, gently nudging his nose against hers before reaching for the faucet. That was enough showering.

“That sounds like a perfect way to finish our little vacation.” She smiled, waiting patiently as Liam grabbed two white cotton towels, warmed up by the sun, and wrapped her in one of them before wrapping himself in the other one.

“You know… Showering in a closed bathroom with a city view will be really disappointing from now on.” He said, sitting down in a big bolder where they could look into the horizon at the deep blue of the Mediterranean Sea.

“You could always shower in our balcony.” She suggested, settling herself between his legs and leaning back into his embrace so they could watch the sunset together. “And we have an outdoors shower in our house that I’m not sure I have ever seen you use, Liam…” she added, intertwining her fingers with Liam’s as his big arms wrapped around her.

“That’s because you never want to shower with me outside.” Somehow, outside showering just didn’t have the same charm in Atlanta.

“I had a taste of it last time we tried to give Neve her bath outside and it was not a pleasurable experience…” she said, right before she felt Liam kiss her exposed shoulder.

“Oh, was it not?” Apparently, they had very distinct memories of that afternoon. Liam remembered thoroughly enjoying spraying Fallon with the hose and getting dog shampoo in her hair. And it was not like she hadn’t gotten her revenge.

“It really wasn’t.” she said as seriously as she could before cracking up in laughter. That had been a good afternoon, she thought. Despite having Liam mess with her hair or Neve run into the dirt right after her bath.

“I miss her. I miss her so much.” Fallon whispered as they watched the sun disappear.

“I think we need to go back home and be with our baby.” In addition to being in New York for work, they were also now on their 10th vacation day, and away from Neve. A stop in Atlanta before going back to New York was definitely required. “I miss her too.”

“Sometimes I feel guilty when we don’t take her with us to New York…”

“Fal, you know it’s the best for her… In Atlanta, she is surrounded all day by people that take care of her, she is free to run wherever she wants, she is at home…” Mom guilt. Fallon felt guilty whenever she spent too much time away from Neve. They had talked about it before, and they had agreed, Neve wasn’t happy in New York.

“I know, but what if she misses us? Or what if she thinks we have abandoned her?” Fallon asked, leaning to the side so she could look back at Liam.

“She doesn’t.” He placed a quick peck of reassurance in her lips. “She is busy following Mr. Bennett around all morning, going to check on the horses and mess with my flowerbeds…” Yes, he was still mad about it. The only time Fallon had seen Liam yell at Neve had been after she carelessly ran through Liam’s precious flowers, and apparently, he still hadn’t let that one go.

“You know the pool boy always takes at least one hour to play catch with her, not to mention that June let’s her sleep on our bed when we are not home, which is certainly nicer than sleeping in her own bed.” He continued, trying to ease her guilt.

“I just worry…” Fallon sighed. “What if when we have our baby…”

“That’s different, Fallon.” Liam didn’t even want to imagine how her mom guilt would be like with their child if she was like that with Neve.

“But what if—"

“Don’t worry.” He insisted. “We talked about this. Neve is a dog. Yes, she is our baby, but she is a dog. A country dog. That loves to be active and be outside.” They had tried. They had tried taking Neve to New York with them, but had she, not only been miserable there, as she had also managed to ruin half of the living room’s furniture the first day she was left alone for the day in their apartment.

“I know, but I don’t want us to just make up excuses as to why she doesn’t spend more time with us…”

“We are with her as much as we can, Fal. I don’t think it’s fair to lock Neve in an apartment while we spend the day at the office, when we know she could be having fun at home, but…” He just wanted something that would put her mind at ease. “If you think it’s the best for her, we can bring her with us to New York. I can even… I don’t know, try to take her to the office?” Have Neve with him at VKI would certainly be a whole new type of challenge.

“No, no, you are right.” Fallon shook her head. They received pictures from home every day and Neve was happy. If her baby was okay, she would too, Fallon told herself. “She is way happier in Atlanta. She will be fine.” She nodded. “Let’s just go home for as long as we can before we go back to New York, please.”

“We are not abandoning her, Fal…” Liam whispered, placing a kiss on the top of her head. “We are going home to be with our baby.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! If you made it through, congratulations! And thank you so much for reading it!  
> I'm so sorry it is so long! I think the story is finally taking a turn next chapter and I hope you stick around for it!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! Hope you liked it!!


End file.
